WEBVTT

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Hudson River Radio dot com. It
beats listening to nothing. Oh my godness,

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Being Frank. Frank, We're the
only way to be is Frank.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to being
Frank. We're the only way to be

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is Frank. I'm your host,
Franklebuono, and I'd like to thank you

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for joining us on what we like
to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. We're

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no conversations out of bounds, and
all points of view are welcome. For

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relevance, We'll let you know.
We go live to tape and we are

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taping on the fourth of January twenty
twenty four, our first show of the

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new year. And if you haven't
noticed, you will that twenty twenty four

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is an election year, a big
one, not only because it involves the

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races for the presidency, Congress,
and local legislatures, but because of the

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strong choices each of those races reports. I believe this election will be to

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decide the very soul of the nation
and how we will define ourselves for the

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next generations. The process has already
begun, with laws in certain states now

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in place limiting or completely restricting reproductive
rights and transgender affirm and care the situation

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at our southern border has spilled over
to affect not only those cities there,

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but major ones throughout the country as
well as our own localities. It is

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certainly an untenable situation with tens of
thousands of people attempting to enter the country

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on a monthly basis, But of
instead of dealing with it in a sane,

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humane way, in a bit of
draconian showmanship, the Republican governor of

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Texas has shipped tens of thousands of
human beings i e. Migrants in buses

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to democratically controlled cities like New York
and Chicago. Here in little old Rockland

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County, measures have been taken that
make it very clear that these people are

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not welcome to stay here. It's
a classic we say, we feel for

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you, but no, you can't
stay. We know that most of these

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laws have been passed into red states
or by Republican administrations, and let's face

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it, this legislation would not have
been possible if it was not supported by

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the people in those areas, and
their opinions are not invalid. Something must

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be done, so it's not hyperbole. We must vote our conscience and make

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our choices clear. One way to
do that is to have intelligent compensation conversation

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about these and other issues with those
who are bold enough to run for political

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office. So who are grateful to
have mister Elijah Richland Melnik, former New

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York State Senator and current candidate from
the thirty eighth District representing Rockland in Westchester

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Counties, New York, to join
us here on being Frank. Thank you.

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You've been here once before, Senator, so thank you for joining us

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again. Thank you, Frank.
It's great to be here with you,

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and I'm honored to be the first
show of twenty twenty four. As you

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said, it's going to be a
big election year, so there, I'm

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sure we'll have a lot to talk
about. I just want to quickly clarify

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the district after the redistricting from twenty
twenty two, no longer has any of

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Westchester. It's only in Rockland County. Only in Rockland, Okay. I

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did my research and it said the
thirty eighth included so that was an old

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it used to. When I ran
in twenty twenty the district did include one

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town in Westchester, and then after
that they redistricted, and so when I

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ran last year. It is only
in Rockland County. It's the entire county

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except the town of Stony Point.
Talk a little bit about that a little

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bit later on in the program what
we can expect from that race. But

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one of the things I wanted to
start with, especially because it is so

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much, very much in the news, and that's the so called migrant situation,

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the situation at the border, which
is literally spilled over to the point

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where it's affecting even local municipalities like
ours. I know in the county at

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day, the county executive here in
Rockland County, and because we do stream,

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we stream from Rockland County Stony Point, New York. But because it's

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streaming, we go to other areas. So I try to explain to people

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where we are, and it's a
community about twenty five miles north of New

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York City about so we are very
much affected by the migrant situation, in

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the so called busting situation that I
mentioned in my intro, and it's been

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made clear, as I said,
there is a county wide ordinance that is

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preventing migrants from being housed in hotels
and motels around the county. And I

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noticed that the supervisor for the town
of Clarkstown. I believe George Homan also

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reinforced that by saying that migrants cannot
be bussed through the town of Clarkstown.

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So I'd like your thoughts on the
situation, since, again it's a national

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picture, but because of what happened, it's filtered through the state and from

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the state down to local governments.
What are your feelings on the situation?

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What should be done? What can
be done? What would you do had

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you have you should you be re
elected to the New York State Senate?

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Sure? Well, nothing like starting
out with a good broad question there,

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So you know, look, this
is a very complicated situation obviously that's driven

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at the national level and to a
large extent, driven by things happening well

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beyond our borders, which is why
you see such a surgeon migrants coming from

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countries like Venezuela, which have really
gone to near collapse in many cases and

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caused large numbers of the people there
to flee. We're fortunate in Rockland,

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I would say, so far the
impact is sort of theoretical rather than real.

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There have not been any large groups
of migrants that have arrived in Rockland

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and while there's been that some might
or some could, at the moment,

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it's unclear to me that anything particular
has happened to harm Rockland as a result

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of this. Obviously, if I'm
re elected, my first priority is always

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going to be doing what's right for
people here in our county, and that

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has to be the priority of any
elected official who is representing Rockland County.

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And so when we look at that, yes, we need to make sure

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and not because you know, we
have something against people who are migrants,

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but because it's any large group of
people that theoretically might show up on our

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doorstep without the ability to provide for
themselves. That is going to cost taxpayers

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in Rockland significant amounts of money.
And it is important that we have a

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plan in place, and that more
importantly, the state and really the federal

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government has a plan in place to
help a community like Rockland if there was

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the case. And again, this
is theoretical. It's not theoretical for New

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York City, but for Rockland County. We're not seeing what we're seeing in

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the city. There's got to be
a plan in place to make sure that

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local communities are not having to pick
up the tab for issues with federal immigration

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policy. That to me is the
bottom line when it comes to this,

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if you ask me at the federal
level, the main reason that we're having

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these problems is we've let it go
decades without any sort of comprehensive fix in

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our immigration system. We are there, people know what needs to be done,

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it just never seems to happen.
We clearly need to make sure we're

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enforcing the laws at the border,
but also create a pathway so that people

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who want to come to this country
like all our ancestors did, and to

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come here and to work and to
start businesses and start families and contribute to

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our society have a way to do
that. And right now for the vast

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majority of people that might want to
come to the US like my great grandparents

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did and your ancestors and everybody listening, they can't do that. When when

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my three quarters of my family came
over here from what's now you know,

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was then the Russian Empire, now
various you know, Russia, Ukraine,

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Lithuania around the turn of the century, the turn of the twentieth century,

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there was you got on a boat, you bought your ticket, and when

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you got to Ellis island. If
you didn't have a contagious disease, and

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you weren't a communist or an anarchist, they lay you in. You can

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get your citizenship a year or two
later, and that was that. And

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the system we have now, if
you don't already have a close family member

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here or are working in a very
high skilled job, you cannot come here

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and start your life in this country. And even if you do have a

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family member, it could take you
literally a couple decades. If you,

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you know, tomorrow, had a
brother that lived in some country around the

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world and you wanted to apply for
him to get his immigration visa and move

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here and get a green card and
eventually become a citizen, you could expect

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he wouldn't show up for fifteen years
or more. That's not something that really

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works for people, and specifically with
this migrant surge. What's happened is a

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federal law for decades, probably since
the Cold War, has said if you

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get to United States soil, whether
on a plane or walking over the border,

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you are allowed to claim asylum,
saying I fear that if I go

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back to my country, I'm going
to be persecuted or killed because of my

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politics, my religion, my race, whatever it might be. You're not

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guarantee to get asylum, but you're
allowed to claim it, and you're allowed

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to have your case heard by a
US judge. What's happened now is that

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the number of people showing up at
the border has totally overwhelmed that system.

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So you have hundreds of thousands of
people showing up every year, maybe more

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than a million, and there's not
nearly enough judges to hear those claims and

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figure out which of them have a
valid claim to asylum because they really would

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have a credible fear of being persecuted
or killed if they went back to their

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country, and which of them are
simply essentially economic migrants. Their conditions and

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and say Nicaragua are terrible, and
so somebody's come up here because they think

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they'd make a better life in the
United States. That is not grounds for

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assylum, whether it should be or
not. The current law says that certainly

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is not. Just because the conditions
in whatever country you live in aren't good

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for you or aren't good for your
family, that doesn't give you the right

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to claim asylum in the US,
or to win asylum. You can claim

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it but it has to be brought
before a judge. So if we were

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serious as a country about dealing with
this migrant issue, one of the many

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things we would do is and people
that proposed this, is hire thousands of

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additional immigration judges to hear these cases
quickly, not in years, but in

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months, so that somebody shows up
at the border and says I need asylum,

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we can evaluate very quickly do they
deserve it or not. If they

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deserve it, then they get it
and they welcome and they start the legal

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process to become a legal resident here. And if they don't deserve it,

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well we're sorry, but you have
to go back to the country you came

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from. If I might jump in
here, and this is absolutely terrific because

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I heard something very interesting today.
Speaker Johnson and a number of Republicans went

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down to the border. Uh.
And President Biden has addressed this because it's

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going to be a hot bund election
issue. The Republicans are going to hammer

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home the fact that there's no security
at the border. There's no positis,

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which is the border is as secure
as it's ever been. If Biden says,

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give give give him the money to
bring the judges in to bring the

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people in. Now, Johnson I
just heard is refusing, says We're not

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going to throw any more money at
the problem because it's not the money,

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it's the system. The system is
tell you, I don't think that.

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I don't think the Republicans actually want
to solve the border right now. I

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think they want to use it as
a as an attack line in the election

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and try to blame Biden and Democrats
for everything that goes wrong. And you

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can you know, I I literally
you don't have to take my word for

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it. Here's a quote from Texas
congressman by the name of Troy Nils who

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just this week. Here's his quote
on CNN. Let me tell you,

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I'm not willing to do too damn
much right now to help a Democrat and

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to help Joe Biden's approval rating.
You know, So this is what we're

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dealing with. It's an easy applause
line and an easy attack line to say,

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close the border, fix the border, stop this. But we know

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what it takes. It's not building
you know, magical walls, or you

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know, shooting people when they approach, or things that are deeply on American.

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It's if somebody shows up, and
when you look at the videos,

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people are not trying that. They're
walking over the border and turning themselves in.

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They're not trying to evade the border
patrol because the whole point is they

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want to claim asylum, and so
you turn yourself in and you claim asylum.

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But they know and this is where
the core the problem is. If

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they claim asylum, it will be
years before their case is heard, and

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in the meantime, they've got time
to live in the United States while they're

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pending. We need to eliminate that. We need to have the people on

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staff, and the federal government spends
trulyions of dollars, surely we can afford

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to hire the few thousand additional judges
it would take to process these cases in

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a timely way so that people who
are trying to come here get a yes

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no answer sooner rather than later.
Are you eligible or are you not?

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And if you're eligible, they can
start a life here and not have to

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live in the shadows. And if
they are not eligible, then they got

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to go back where they came from. Well, you know what I see

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here center is almost like a paradox, though, and it comes back to

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what you were saying the burden of
pain for all these things. Okay,

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the only way to get it done
is to pay for it. Uh And

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but people are unwilling to pay for
it, so it doesn't get done.

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So you get this vicious you get
this vicious cycle. That's catch twenty two

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if you will go and how do
we break that? I think we need

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to realize that, as we do
in our own lives, sometimes you spend

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money because you'll save more later.
I mean, it's the concept of investing

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or putting money away, you know, or or you know, putting money

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out now because you know the return
will come back. Look, we you

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know, it's the same argument that're
Republicans like to have. They are they

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always want to cut funding for the
IRS, and particularly when the IRS wants

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to hire people to go after wealthy
taxpayers that are gaining the system. But

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every dollar that we spend to actually
audit people who are, you know,

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trying to gain the system as you
can if you're a very rich person and

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can hire armies of accountants, it
makes far more than that back in tax

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revenue that's gained. And so you
talk about the drain that having hundreds of

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thousands of people showing up on a
monthly basis at the border has on the

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on the tax base, not only
you know, nationally, but then what

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the impact is on a city like
New York or or perhaps you know,

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on a you know, a suburban
community spending the money and we're not talking.

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You know, this isn't like we
spend hundreds of billions of dollars a

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year on important national defense stuff and
nobody bats an eye because it's it's important.

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We recognize, you know, we
don't want to cut our military.

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We need a strong military. We
should have the same attitude with this spend

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the money process. These people,
make sure they get an answer quickly,

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and then we have the ability for
anybody that is not qualified for asylum to

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deport them back to the country that
they came from. I continue to think

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we should change the law so that
we have a process in place that somebody

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that wants to come legally can do
that and earn their citizenship. Eventually,

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we don't really have that process that
works for most people now, but that's

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a separate fight. We have an
asylum law on the books, we need

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to enforce it in a more timely
way rather than waiting years to process cases.

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I want to switch gears a little
bit, but it's all related,

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of course, it always is.
Talk a little bit about affordable housing.

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It was going through social media today
and there was a post and it really

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affected me about it was obviously from
a single mom and she was looking for

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an affordable apartment, for a one
bedroom apartment here again in Rockland County,

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a relatively affluent bourb and more suburban
type community for people who don't know it.

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Again people think of it as fairly
wealthy, but was looking for a

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one bedroom apartment for herself and her
daughter. And she's had references and a

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hard working woman, but for looking
for something for one bedroom for fifteen to

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seventeen hundred dollars in Rockland County and
that that's not going to cut it.

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And so you again you get into
these vicious cycles and it start. If

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people don't have the security of a
place to live, then it's more difficult

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to work, children aren't educated properly
than there's food insecurities. It just starts

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again this vicious cycle. So what
can we do about affordable housing as a

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situation nationally but also in particular in
communities like Rockland County. What can be

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done well. There's clearly a housing
affordability issue, not just in Rockland but

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all through the state and really in
many parts of the country. The few

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areas that around the country that are
you know, seeing very cheaply affordable housing.

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In most cases, it's either communities
that are emptying out and the housings

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affordable because people don't want to live
there because the economy is going downhill,

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or there's other issues. And you
look at a lot of Rust Belt cities

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and you see things like that,
it's very cheap if you want to move

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to Akron right now, I'm sure, but there's not a whole lot going

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on there. But or alternately places
in the Sun Belt where there's still huge

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amounts of buildable land in relatively close
proximity to highways and things like that.

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The challenge for the New York area
is particularly a place like Rockland, and

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the same goes for Westchester and Bergen
and the other older suburban communities. We

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don't have a lot of land to
build on. If you went back to

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Rockland fifty years ago or seventy years
ago when the bridge opened, it was

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farms. You know, Developers,
could you know, buy a few farms

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and put up hundreds of houses,
and that was simply the way it went.

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And we don't have that land available
in the way that we used to.

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And people don't want to see density, you know, we don't want

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to see density in Rockland that matches
the city that many people came from,

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or that matches you know, other
large cities. You know, I work

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right now over in White Plains and
it's perfectly a nice place to work.

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And they've got a lot of huge
buildings there, office buildings, big tall

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apartments. That's fine for that.
They've got good train service to the city.

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But I don't think that most people
in Rockland want to start seeing,

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you know, fifteen twenty story apartments
going in. So we need smart strategies

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to try to incentivize additional construction where
we can, in places that make sense

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close to transit stops, whether it's
our limited train stations or bus stops or

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things like that, and to really
be smart. I'm proud. When I

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was a village trustee in Nayak,
we had laws on the books and the

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village still does that requires any developer
who wants to build multi family housing to

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set a certain percent of the units
aside as affordable housing units. That's something

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which every community in Rockland should be
doing, and most are not. It

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doesn't you know, that's one step. It doesn't require the construction of any

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housing, but it says that if
a developer comes in and wants to build

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any sort of multi family housing,
they need to set some of it aside

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for people who are not upper middle
class or rich to be able to afford.

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I think those are all big pieces
of it, you know, certainly

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finding ways to reduce any unnecessary red
tape that's slowing down construction, but recognizing

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that we have to strike a balance
between allowing additional housing where we need and

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the county has to continue to grow
this is the way of the world,

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and making sure that we do preserve
the sort of suburban way of life that

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drew people to Rockland to begin with
or kept them here. You know,

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if we grew up as a legislator, how do you deal with the so

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called nimbi attitude? You know,
people love the idea, Oh that's great,

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but just don't put it here.
So how do you convince people with

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an attitude like that, Yeah,
the idea is great, but just don't

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just don't put it here, and
that happens. We've been talking about a

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little bit the migrant situations. Yeah
we want to see them get helped,

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but we just don't help them here. Yeah, we'd like to see affordable

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housing, just don't put it here. How do you deal with that?

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Well, I mean, i'd say
as a state legislator there, we do

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less with that because all the land
use issues tend to happen really at the

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local level. The state's not doing
zoning shouldn't be. The governor proposed last

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year to override local zoning, which
I thought was a terrible idea, and

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she rightly backed off it because there
was a really unanimous opposition from suburban legislators

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of both parties. So the state
isn't suing so much of that, but

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local governments when you're dealing with land
use issues and approving projects. Look,

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people who live in a community currently, and I think that describes most of

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us. Typically, if you like
the way your community is, you're going

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to stay there, and if you
don't like it, you're gonna move if

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you can afford to. And so
at any given time, most people that

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live in a community, like most
of them in Rockland, have chosen to

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be there, and they wanted to
stay roughly the same way that it is,

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because if they didn't like it,
they would probably pick up and go

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somewhere else. So there needs to
be an ongoing dialogue both to understand that

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that's the reality. People are i
think, naturally resistant to what seems like

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excessive change, So we shouldn't be
doing excessive change. We should be finding

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smart areas, looking for the vacant
properties, looking for the abandoned properties,

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finding places that we can grow in
a way that's going to add density in

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a smart way without you know,
changing the character of a community that people

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have come to know and love.
And look. Sure, if there's somebody

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that just never wants to see a
single additional unit of housing built in Rockland

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County, I'm sorry. That's Rockland's
been building housing, you know, for

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as long as it's been here,
and certainly ever since the Tappanzee Bridge opened,

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has been growing and changing and it's
going to continue to but we want

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to do it in a way that
respects what we have and don't tear down

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existing development to put up high rises, and you know, don't force people

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out of their houses. And you
know, I think you can look at,

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you know, places in the city
that have changed in a really rapid

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way, and people want to make
sure that doesn't happen here. So I

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think talk about the benefits of as
you said, the working mother that's trying

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to find a place for her and
her child to live, the younger family

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that wants to start a family in
Rockland, because it's not only rentals,

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it's you know, the price of
home ownership in Rockland is setting new highs

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all the time, and that prices
young people out of the market, pushes

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them further up, you know,
to Orange County or Putnam or Duchess,

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and so we lose that it's hard
for people in their twenties and thirties to

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live in Rockland if they wanted to
move back after going to college, or

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they you know, are looking to
get out of the city and come up

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this way as well. As we
need these options at all levels of the

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market. And that's something which I
think everybody, even folks that don't really

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want things to change that much,
should be able to understand. This is

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about making it possible for working people, who we all are working people at

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one time or another, have the
ability to live in our community, contribute

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to our community and build their story
in Rockland, just like everybody else has

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done. Okay, Another issue that
we talk about a lot, and I

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think we probably even did the last
time you were here on being frank,

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and politicians talk about it all the
time, and yet there was another school

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shooting, this time in Iowa.
The issue of gun control and gun violence,

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particularly in schools and everywhere. You
know, we have in New York

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pending a concealed Carrie law that is
being challenged but right now is being struck

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down as unconstitutional. Anyway, why
do we continue to have this conversation and

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nothing seems to be able to get
done, even in blue states? No

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one is immune to this. What
can we do and why we haven't the

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same conversations? You hit the nail
on the head. We've been having this

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conversation about gun violence for as long
as I've been around, And you know,

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I was in high school when the
Columbine shooting happened in Colorado. That

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seems to have kicked off the current
wave of school shootings, and the death

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toll since then is beyond belief.
It never seems to stop. We've had

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elementary school children all the way up
to college students killed, and of course

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more mass shootings. So you know, to the point where these days,

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unless it's you know, truly out
of the ordinary, barely makes the news

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anymore. I wish I had a
good answer. I mean, we're a

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country which we've got more guns than
people. Sure, we have a Second

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Amendment, it guarantees people the right
to keep in bare arms. We all

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understand that. But there's got to
be a better way to manage those arms

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and to manage those weapons so that
we don't lead the developed world in gun

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homicides. More people are killed in
the US per capita from guns than any

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other developed country. You have to
look at places like Somalia and war torn

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countries to see a similar gun death
rate as we have. And I don't

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believe there's all of these red herrings. Oh it's the mental health. Oh

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it's the violent video games, it's
all of this. I'm sorry. Every

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other country in the world has people
with mental health issues, every other country

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has kids who play violent video games. They don't see this sort of thing

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happen on such a regular basis.
And the difference is that here you can

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relatively easily compared to almost any other
country, go out and buy not a

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hunting rifle or a handgun, but
a weapon of war, a gun that

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can shoot dozens of bullets and murder
dozens of people in minutes before you can

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be stopped. And that often outguns
are police and outguns the sort of proverbial

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good guy with a gun. I
mean the Buffalo shooting two years ago that

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killed I believe a dozen people in
Buffalo. There was an armed security guard

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at that supermarket that tried to stop
the gunman and he was outgunned because the

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gunman had a much more powerful assault
weapon and military grade body armor. And

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that armed guard fought back, he
lost his life and he couldn't stop it.

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And if we have people roaming the
street that are more heavily armed than

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police, that just isn't sustainable.
We need a shift in the culture.

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We need people to recognize that,
you know, we have police for a

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reason. Police are there to keep
us safe and we can trust the police

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to do that job. And other
law enforcement and everybody out there who has

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these arsenals that is not necessary for
safety. It's not necessary and it raises

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the risks. And you know,
unfortunately, we just saw in Rockland this

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week. You know, when when
guns are present, more people can can

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lose their lives. And we don't
know what happened yet, but there was

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this just unimaginable tragedy of a father
shooting himself and his wife and two children

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in this city just last week.
And I was at the vigil last night

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for that, and it's probably the
saddest thing that I've ever had to go

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to, yeah, because it's tragic, unimaginable, unimaginable. And I've talked

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to parents who have had to explain
to their kids, I'm sorry that your

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friend who you've known for years was
killed by his own father. And I

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mean, I have an eighteen month
old at home and I can't imagine having

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that conversation. And I can't it
just to think about. And this is

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what we have to recognize, is
that we we talk about, you know,

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a school shooting or any shooting,
it isn't just the people that were

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shot whose lives are lost and impacted. It's everybody who they knew. It's

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the family members that the teachers,
the students, the friends, the coworkers.

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I mean, we've got to do
better at this. And I think

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that until at the national level,
politicians realize that it simply is worth defying

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00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:37.519
some of the most radical pro gun
groups to do the right thing. Nothing

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will change at the national level.
I am proud that in New York we

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have taken many steps that will help. Nothing can end it because we don't

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have walls around New York. But
while I was there, I was very

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proud to raise the age to buy
these assault weapons from eighteen to twenty one

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years old. Was proud that we
pass prohibitions on that kind of military grade

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body armor that warned by the shooter
in Buffalo. They make it much harder

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for civilians to get access to that. We allowed people to actually file lawsuit

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against the gun companies for the harms
their products caused. Expanded the red flag

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laws that allow people if you suspect, you know, if there's a risk

398
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that somebody could harm themselves or others, to try to get guns removed from

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the house before that could happen.
So New York and we cracked down on

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ghost guns, which you know,
are these things which people can basically assemble

401
00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:33.240
from unlicensed parts or even three D
print off the internet. We were taking

402
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:36.119
a lot of steps and I do
think it would help. And you know,

403
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additionally, I introduced, sponsored and
passed and signed by the Governor Alyssa's

404
00:29:41.960 --> 00:29:45.680
Law, which was an important bill
that will require all schools in New York

405
00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:51.400
State to consider the installation of silent
panic alarms that could link directly with law

406
00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:56.000
enforcement to reduce response times in the
event of an emergency. So I think

407
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the state can do a lot,
but we do need action from Washington.

408
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And keeping with our theme of all
things being connected, there's been an alarming

409
00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:10.079
rise in hate crimes. I mean, the statistics all bear it out,

410
00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:12.359
particularly in an anti semitism. We've, as a matter of fact here being

411
00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:18.279
Frank de voted a number of shows
towards it. Why do you think it

412
00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:26.759
keeps increasing and the divide between Americans
keeps also increasing. What are your thoughts

413
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.039
on that? What do you feel
might be driving all this hate, all

414
00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:34.720
this division? Well, I can
give you the there's sort of a big

415
00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:37.839
picture answer, I guess about hate
and division. But I mean with this

416
00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:45.039
anti Semitism is pretty obviously being driven
in the short term by the fallout from

417
00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:52.160
the hamas Teririst attack on Israel,
and we've seen over the years very scary

418
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:57.599
incidents of anti Semitism coming from Neo
Nazis and other people on the right,

419
00:30:57.759 --> 00:31:03.880
the shooter that people at the Tree
of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh a few years

420
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:07.200
ago, other you know, and
many other incidents over the years. And

421
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:12.839
what's happened in the wake of this
attack is I think a strand of I

422
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:17.759
guess latent anti semitism on the far
left has really weired its head as well.

423
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:21.640
And look, I mean, anti
Semitism is often called the oldest prejudice

424
00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:29.039
because Jews have been persecuted, attacked, killed, and otherwise, you know,

425
00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:32.200
harassed for their faith. Ever,
you know, for the last two

426
00:31:32.279 --> 00:31:36.920
thousand years, and three quarters of
my family left Russia, you know,

427
00:31:37.079 --> 00:31:40.200
at the turn of the century because
the climate for Jews at the time there

428
00:31:40.279 --> 00:31:45.720
was appalling. There were regular pogroms
of basically state sponsored acts of terrorism coming

429
00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:51.440
in and killing and dispossessing Jewish communities. And throughout Europe, in the Middle

430
00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:55.720
East and all over the place,
there's been this trend. And I think

431
00:31:55.759 --> 00:32:00.720
that what we're seeing and it scares
me because what we're seeing now is in

432
00:32:00.759 --> 00:32:02.799
a way almost a convergence of the
far left and the far right that have

433
00:32:02.839 --> 00:32:09.279
come together in their hatred or at
least their fear of Jews. And you

434
00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:15.319
know, this sort of gets masked
as you know, you'll see people say,

435
00:32:15.319 --> 00:32:17.279
oh, it's not anti Semitic,
it's just anti Zionists. And it

436
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:22.200
is certainly possible that there you can
certainly oppose Israel without being an anti Semite.

437
00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:24.960
But it sure seems like a lot
of the people that are the most

438
00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:30.519
strongly opposed Israel also seem to be
pretty anti Semitic. And you know,

439
00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:37.720
I think that that that is Jewish
people I know in Rockland have never been

440
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:44.200
as on edge as they are right
now. People are fearful in a way

441
00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:49.759
they never thought they would have to
be synagogues, yeshiva's, other places of

442
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:55.079
you know where Jews assemble need armed
security guards. This is not something we

443
00:32:55.119 --> 00:33:00.799
should accept as normal in the United
States, and we have to keep pushing

444
00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:06.960
back on this. Everybody in this
country must have the right to and not

445
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:10.000
just the right, but the ability
to go about their life to worship where

446
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.920
they want to worship, to go
to school where they want to go to

447
00:33:12.920 --> 00:33:15.960
school, to congregate with who they
want to congregate with, without needing to

448
00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:20.640
fear that there's going to be an
attack based on who they are. Well,

449
00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:23.759
what are your thoughts on the rhetoric
of form President Trump when he says

450
00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:30.960
that these migrants and immigrants are poisoning
the blood. And obviously it's been compared

451
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:35.359
to language used blay it Off,
Hitler, et cetera. It's disgusting.

452
00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:37.960
I mean, it's this is you
know, you said, what caused the

453
00:33:37.160 --> 00:33:40.880
division in the country. Trump didn't
cause it, but he's done more than

454
00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:44.839
anybody else that I can see,
to exacerbate it and to make it worse.

455
00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:47.680
You know, we've had divisions,
you know, throughout our history,

456
00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:52.519
for sure, but the current division
when you've got people who see the other

457
00:33:52.599 --> 00:33:58.960
political party not as folks to disagree
with, but as enemies of the state,

458
00:33:59.039 --> 00:34:01.319
and those are that's also language that
Trump has used. And you know,

459
00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:05.240
you've got a lot of you know, you look and you see polls

460
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:10.719
of some not all Republicans, but
some set of right wing conservative Republicans that

461
00:34:10.760 --> 00:34:15.840
seem to trust Vladimir Putin more than
they trust Joe Biden. That's a sign

462
00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:19.360
of a really broken system. And
that's not the way it used to work.

463
00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:22.039
I mean, go back to the
fifties and sixties, even we were

464
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:24.360
quite divided in the sixties, but
I guarantee you there were not large numbers

465
00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:29.320
of Americans that trusted the Soviet Union
more than they trusted our own president.

466
00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:34.519
You know, we're coming up on
an unfortunate anniversary in January sixth. As

467
00:34:34.519 --> 00:34:37.079
I said, we're taping right now
in January fourth, and that will bring

468
00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:42.000
us I want some of your thoughts
on the fourteenth Amendments, whether Trump as

469
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:46.679
an instigator of insurrection is eligible.
We can talk about a few of those

470
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:51.559
things and a lot more. I
want to talk about congestion pricing. I

471
00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:54.239
think that's a big deal, especially
for people like us who have to commute

472
00:34:54.920 --> 00:35:00.239
frequently into New York City, and
some of the important campaign issues that you

473
00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:04.840
think will be coming up for your
campaign. So look about all of that.

474
00:35:05.079 --> 00:35:09.519
Right after this break, my very
special guest Great Conversation Intelligent Conversation is

475
00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:15.239
a former New York State Senator and
current candidate for the thirty eighth District,

476
00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:20.480
mister Elijah Reichlan Melnick. We'll be
back with more being Frank right after these

477
00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:25.360
brief commercial messages. Please don't go
anywhere yet. Hudson River Radio dot com.

478
00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:30.639
Check out the Angel Quest show with
psychic media and author Karen Noe.

479
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:37.039
Karen covers spiritual topics such as near
death experiences, reincarnation, life after death,

480
00:35:37.159 --> 00:35:39.880
how your thoughts create your reality,
creating peace on Earth, and so

481
00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:45.039
much more. Check out the Angel
Quest Show on Apple Podcasts, iHeart,

482
00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:52.119
Spotify, or wherever you get your
podcasts. Bring a dash of green into

483
00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:57.599
your life. Check out the Many
Shades of Green with Maxine, Margaret Rubin,

484
00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:02.280
and Malcolm Berman. Get informed environmental
issues and current events that affect us

485
00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:07.840
all. Pick a shade of green
and raise your eco consciousness with the Many

486
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:13.960
Shades of Green available on Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you

487
00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:24.039
get your podcasts. Hudsonriverradio dot com. Welcome back to Being Frank, the

488
00:36:24.199 --> 00:36:30.559
Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks for sticking
with us. I'm your host, Frank

489
00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:34.239
Leblono. You know we bring you
our audience a fresh topic every week,

490
00:36:34.639 --> 00:36:38.679
usually premiering on Thursday nights, and
we stream from Hudson River Radio, located

491
00:36:38.679 --> 00:36:44.079
in beautiful and historic Stony Point,
New York. But you can catch Being

492
00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:50.280
Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts, that includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio,

493
00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:54.159
and all the others and because every
Being Frank is archived, you can

494
00:36:54.199 --> 00:36:59.280
listen to any of our programs anytime
you like. You can find a link

495
00:36:59.320 --> 00:37:02.840
to Being Frank on the Hudson River
Facebook page excuse me, the Hudson River

496
00:37:04.119 --> 00:37:08.960
Radio Facebook page, or at our
website Hudson Riverradio dot com. Just click

497
00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:14.440
and you're there. Leave us a
comment and please consider subscribing to the podcast,

498
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:19.440
and if you really like us,
share us with your family and friends.

499
00:37:19.480 --> 00:37:23.800
My very special guest tonight talking about
what to expect in this very important

500
00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:30.760
election year twenty twenty four is former
New York State Senator and current candidate for

501
00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:37.199
Senate in the thirty eighth district,
Mister Elijah Richland Melick, Senator, Thank

502
00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:42.800
you for joining us once again,
talking about a host of topics before we

503
00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:46.280
left, talking a little bit about
former President Trump and some of his legal

504
00:37:46.320 --> 00:37:52.559
issues, particularly with the fourteenth Amendment, which is to appear on the ballot,

505
00:37:52.599 --> 00:37:55.920
and two states have already removed him
from the ballot, being Colorado and

506
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:00.239
Maine. If that were to come
up over a vote in New York work,

507
00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:02.719
what would your vote be? Would
you vote to keep him off the

508
00:38:02.760 --> 00:38:07.400
ballot or do you feel it's important
that he stay on the ballot and let

509
00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:10.800
the people ultimately choose your thoughts.
Sure, I mean so, just to

510
00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:15.800
be clear though, these are not
votes that are being taken by elected officials.

511
00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:20.199
These are the Colorado thing was a
decision of their Supreme Court and the

512
00:38:20.280 --> 00:38:24.000
main excuse me, and the main
issue was from there, I think the

513
00:38:24.039 --> 00:38:29.159
secretary of State or something like that, and so these are not I certainly

514
00:38:29.239 --> 00:38:34.719
don't think that elected officials should be
taking a vote. It's not a political

515
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:37.679
question. It's got to be a
legal question. So just so we're clear

516
00:38:37.719 --> 00:38:42.039
with that, Thanks for clarifying that. Appreciate it so. And look,

517
00:38:42.079 --> 00:38:44.599
I mean I am not a lawyer, so it makes it a little hard

518
00:38:44.599 --> 00:38:49.599
for me to take a position on
this. I've seen legal arguments on both

519
00:38:49.639 --> 00:38:54.079
sides, and ultimately, if the
legal arguments are persuasive, and this is

520
00:38:54.320 --> 00:38:58.800
where I leave it to the lawyers
and the judges, that he's not eligible

521
00:38:58.840 --> 00:39:01.360
to run for president, then he
shouldn't be on the ballot. If they're

522
00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:06.119
not persuasive, then he should be, you know, clearly, if he

523
00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:10.760
was. There's there are not many
disqualifications to be president, but there are

524
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:14.800
some. You have to be a
natural born citizen of this country. You

525
00:39:14.840 --> 00:39:19.199
can't have immigrated here, even if
you later got your citizenship. And you

526
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:22.760
know that even goes back, you
know, to the Founding generation and somebody

527
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:27.559
like Alexander Hamilton, who was a
very famous and renowned Founding father, but

528
00:39:28.239 --> 00:39:30.559
was not eligible to be president,
and everybody realized that at the time because

529
00:39:30.599 --> 00:39:35.119
he wasn't born in the United States
in what was now the United States.

530
00:39:35.199 --> 00:39:39.079
He'd been born I think in Bermuda
or Barbados or one of the British colonies

531
00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:44.800
there. And so if somebody showed
up and said, you know, let's

532
00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:47.679
say somebody you know, and Trump
himself, if you remember, came to

533
00:39:47.719 --> 00:39:53.239
fame as a political figure because he
was questioning well Obama, he claimed he

534
00:39:53.280 --> 00:39:57.519
was born in Kenya, which would
have made him ineligible to be president.

535
00:39:57.559 --> 00:39:59.960
And of course Obama was not born
in Keny. He was born in Hawaii,

536
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:04.000
but that was a question over eligibility. And if there had really been

537
00:40:04.039 --> 00:40:08.079
evidence that suggested and not suggested,
but proved that Obama was born in Kenya,

538
00:40:08.599 --> 00:40:13.719
then I think it's undoubted that he
should not have been allowed to run

539
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:17.400
for president. And same goes if
you're a twenty five year old. You

540
00:40:17.400 --> 00:40:21.400
can't run for president because the Constitution
says you have to be thirty five.

541
00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:28.960
So there are certain rules that are
in the Constitution for what qualifies somebody to

542
00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:31.239
be president. One of those rules, thanks to the fourteenth Amendment, is

543
00:40:31.239 --> 00:40:36.400
that you have not I don't remember
the exact language, but have not participated

544
00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:40.320
in an insurrection against the government.
So again, I'm not a lawyer.

545
00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:44.599
It's hard for me to evaluate it. There may be things that are not

546
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:50.960
clear based on that, but I
think it's certainly a reasonable question to ask.

547
00:40:51.079 --> 00:40:53.480
And you know, that's what I
think courts are going to do.

548
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:57.880
And frankly, I think this will
be a moot point because I think the

549
00:40:57.880 --> 00:41:02.239
Supreme Court is going to weigh in
relatively soon, and given the folks that

550
00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:06.679
sit on the Supreme Court, I
don't really see them ruling against Trump,

551
00:41:06.679 --> 00:41:09.199
even if there was a strong legal
argument. But it's a rhetorical question.

552
00:41:10.119 --> 00:41:15.679
I mean, do you think should
someone in a situation like this, where

553
00:41:15.159 --> 00:41:20.159
again, it demonstrates the power of
the vote. You know, if people

554
00:41:20.239 --> 00:41:25.239
feel that he is insufficient, unqualified, et cetera, they should not vote

555
00:41:25.239 --> 00:41:29.000
for him. But yeah, I
mean, I think the argument though,

556
00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:32.960
if you buy the legal case that
he is. If you buy the legal

557
00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:37.440
case about this, if somebody showed
up again, who was let's say,

558
00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:42.519
born in France and they've lived here
for many years and they're a citizen,

559
00:41:42.599 --> 00:41:45.320
and they said I'm running for president, we wouldn't say, let the voters

560
00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:49.960
decide. We would say you're not
eligible to run for president, because the

561
00:41:49.960 --> 00:41:52.960
Constitution says you have to be a
natural born citizen. If you know,

562
00:41:53.880 --> 00:41:57.880
I don't know, if my cousin
who's twenty eight decided he wanted to run

563
00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:00.239
for president, nobody would say,
well, let the voters decide. They'd

564
00:42:00.239 --> 00:42:05.440
say, you're not eligible to run
for president. And the question is,

565
00:42:05.719 --> 00:42:09.440
there is a section of the Constitution
in the fourteenth Amendment that says that people

566
00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:15.320
that have committed insurrection are not eligible
to be a president, a senator,

567
00:42:15.320 --> 00:42:21.639
a representative, etc. And that's
never really been tested. So the question

568
00:42:21.800 --> 00:42:25.360
is how does that work exactly?
But I think in principle, there's many

569
00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:29.639
other sections of you know, not
many, but several other pieces of the

570
00:42:29.679 --> 00:42:36.840
Constitution that set qualifications and therefore disqualifications
for who is allowed to serve as president.

571
00:42:36.920 --> 00:42:38.960
And in none of those cases would
we say, well, let's just

572
00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:43.000
let voters make that decision. If
that's the case, what's the point of

573
00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:47.480
the constitution? Point well taken.
Let's move to some things more practical for

574
00:42:47.519 --> 00:42:52.400
a New York State senator, and
one of them, and one of those

575
00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:58.119
being congestion pricing, which is still
being argued and debated in New York City,

576
00:42:58.519 --> 00:43:01.880
where to get into to Midtown it
could cost as much as fifteen dollars

577
00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:06.880
below what is it, fifty ninth
Street, sixtieth Street, sixtieth Street.

578
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:13.559
Yes, understandable on some levels,
trying to improve the air quality by removing

579
00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:19.159
some of the cars from New York
City using the money earned to improve public

580
00:43:19.199 --> 00:43:22.960
transportations. That's on the upside.
The downside is for people like you and

581
00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:29.079
I from Rockland County, and I
remember my days at working at CBS.

582
00:43:29.320 --> 00:43:34.920
If I worked at midnight shift,
I had no means of public transportation to

583
00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:37.679
get out of New York City to
be able to get home, so I

584
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:43.480
had to take my car. I'm
retired now and it's not the same situation,

585
00:43:43.599 --> 00:43:46.880
although I still go into the city
obviously for other means and teaching at

586
00:43:46.920 --> 00:43:52.320
Fordham, etc. And the idea
of paying an additional fifteen dollars on top

587
00:43:52.360 --> 00:43:58.400
of the extraordinarily high tolls of the
George Washington Bridge and the Mario Cuomo Bridge

588
00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:02.960
also there went up. So once
again the state very much with hands in

589
00:44:04.039 --> 00:44:07.880
our pockets, and again with people
here in Rockland County, if they understand

590
00:44:07.880 --> 00:44:14.079
the situation, your options are limited. So what would you do? What

591
00:44:14.159 --> 00:44:19.880
could you do as a New York
State senator to deal with this new kitch?

592
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:22.760
I mean, you hit the nail
on the head. It's the problem

593
00:44:22.840 --> 00:44:27.519
for you and for so many other
people in Rockland is there's no alternative.

594
00:44:28.400 --> 00:44:30.440
It's one thing if you live in
you know, one of the outer boroughs,

595
00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:37.719
or in Westchester, Long Island,
parts of Bergen and Essex and Hudson

596
00:44:37.719 --> 00:44:39.719
Counties in New Jersey, you can
take a train, you know, if

597
00:44:39.719 --> 00:44:43.000
you didn't want to drive, if
you don't want to pay the additional fee.

598
00:44:43.239 --> 00:44:46.480
There's regular train service for most of
these communities, and everybody in Rockland

599
00:44:46.480 --> 00:44:50.800
knows we just don't have that.
And the bus service that we have is

600
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:53.119
not really a good alternative either,
even at Russia hour. Frankly, and

601
00:44:53.320 --> 00:44:58.719
especially if you're coming at off hours
or late night or just have to be

602
00:44:58.800 --> 00:45:01.800
somewhere at a certain point that's not
near the Port Authority or Grand Central or

603
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:06.840
Penn Station. It's a tax.
It's an extra tax on Rockland people.

604
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:08.960
And I get it if you're in
the city, you know. I talk

605
00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:14.760
to the colleagues and legislature that represent
Manhattan. They're sick of everybody driving through

606
00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:16.880
the neighborhood. I probably will be
too if I leave there if I lived

607
00:45:16.880 --> 00:45:22.360
there. But it gives no option. So if you're going to do this,

608
00:45:22.960 --> 00:45:28.159
then for God's sakes, like expand
the train service to Rockland, expand

609
00:45:28.159 --> 00:45:32.559
our bus service, give people here
an option to take mass transit if you're

610
00:45:32.559 --> 00:45:37.199
going to charge us more to drive. Otherwise, it's just you know,

611
00:45:37.239 --> 00:45:40.400
sticking, like you said, sticking
the hand in our pocket for extra money

612
00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:46.320
to feed the MTA. And I've
always been opposed to this. I introduced

613
00:45:46.400 --> 00:45:52.840
legislation last year that would exempt Rockland
commuters from it. I plan to reintroduce

614
00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:58.480
that legislation. I think that the
state has to understand that the situation that

615
00:45:58.519 --> 00:46:01.599
applies to us who live on the
west side of the Hudson and Orange County

616
00:46:01.599 --> 00:46:05.039
are the same as well. I
don't never represented Orange, but I hear

617
00:46:05.079 --> 00:46:08.320
from people that do a lot of
the same situations, but we just don't

618
00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:13.079
have the transit options. And so
if you if the idea behind congestion pricing

619
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:16.920
is charge people more so they don't
drive into the city and it reduces congestion,

620
00:46:17.599 --> 00:46:22.159
that's not gonna work for Rockland because
you could charge people more, but

621
00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:25.199
there's no alternative. And if you're
a family, what are you gonna I

622
00:46:25.199 --> 00:46:29.039
mean, this is the challenge too. If you have to go into Let's

623
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:31.199
see, you're a family and you
want to take your kids to the museum

624
00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:36.000
or to his Broadway show, or
you know, something like that, we're

625
00:46:36.119 --> 00:46:39.599
going to buy four train tickets or
four bus tickets. It's just like it

626
00:46:39.719 --> 00:46:44.440
never is gonna unless you stick one
hundred dollars charge on it. You know,

627
00:46:44.760 --> 00:46:47.719
you'd have to put some outrageous amount
for it to really deter people from

628
00:46:47.760 --> 00:46:55.559
driving if there's no good alternatives.
Now, you ran for reelection if a

629
00:46:55.599 --> 00:47:05.000
New York State Senate in twenty twenty
and you lost. What lessons did you

630
00:47:05.119 --> 00:47:07.480
learn during that time? What lessons
did you learn from being in Albany?

631
00:47:07.800 --> 00:47:12.960
What lessons did you learn from your
loss? What do you expect from the

632
00:47:13.079 --> 00:47:15.719
upcoming campaign? What do you think
will be some of the key issues that

633
00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:20.559
you would like to see addressed in
the upcoming campaign. I know that's three

634
00:47:20.639 --> 00:47:24.719
or four questions. You're good at
those multi parties, you know. I

635
00:47:25.199 --> 00:47:30.519
think one of the things which I
did take from it is it's very challenging

636
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:35.599
to get people to cross party lines. It's hard to get people to cross

637
00:47:35.599 --> 00:47:39.639
party lines. And it's hard to
get people to actually follow state politics enough

638
00:47:39.679 --> 00:47:44.639
to know who their representatives are at
the state level and what they're doing.

639
00:47:44.760 --> 00:47:46.280
And so what I think, you
know, what I think we saw last

640
00:47:46.320 --> 00:47:51.960
year is many many voters simply picking
a party for the top of the ticket

641
00:47:51.960 --> 00:47:55.760
for governor for UNI, Kathy Vochel
or leeze Eldon and staying on that line.

642
00:47:55.880 --> 00:48:00.000
And so in Rockland, a majority
of voters, a clear majority,

643
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:06.280
picked Zelden for governor and stayed on
that line down the line we ended up

644
00:48:06.360 --> 00:48:09.320
running with my campaign, I ran
quite a bit ahead of where Kathy Holkle

645
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:14.039
was doing, so we did get
some crossover support from people who were voting

646
00:48:14.239 --> 00:48:17.119
for Zelden, but just not quite
enough. And partly that, you know.

647
00:48:17.199 --> 00:48:20.800
So the other thing I think which
you'll learn and which we hope for

648
00:48:21.199 --> 00:48:24.760
this year is going to be very
different. Is voters last year were I

649
00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:28.320
guess I should say two years ago
because we're now in twenty twenty four.

650
00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:35.000
Voters in twenty twenty two were not
engaged or energized on the Democratic side.

651
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:38.639
They didn't feel that the governor was
I guess, you know, I don't

652
00:48:38.639 --> 00:48:42.679
want to speak for people, but
they didn't feel energized by her campaign,

653
00:48:42.719 --> 00:48:45.639
and that showed with the turnout,
which really among Democrats was quite low.

654
00:48:45.920 --> 00:48:49.679
And we have to do better this
time around, you know, not just

655
00:48:49.679 --> 00:48:54.320
to energize Democrats, but to make
sure that independent voters and smart Republicans and

656
00:48:54.639 --> 00:49:00.199
moderate Republicans recognize that you don't need
to just pick a party line and go.

657
00:49:00.559 --> 00:49:04.960
You should be evaluating races on their
own, and you should ask what

658
00:49:05.079 --> 00:49:08.599
is a candidate and what is an
officeholder actually doing to improve my life?

659
00:49:08.639 --> 00:49:12.559
And what can they do and what
will they do? And that I think

660
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:15.480
we have gotten away from. And
people vote for a party and they don't

661
00:49:15.559 --> 00:49:20.039
vote for a person. And while
it may be at the presidential level,

662
00:49:20.079 --> 00:49:23.000
the party is absolutely key. At
the level that we're talking about for state,

663
00:49:23.400 --> 00:49:27.559
it's important to look at the person
as well as the party. So

664
00:49:27.599 --> 00:49:30.760
the issues that I'm going to focus
on certainly has a lot to do with

665
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:35.599
the record which I achieved during the
two years I was there. I'm really

666
00:49:35.639 --> 00:49:39.159
proud. I always prioritized the district
that I represented, and so in just

667
00:49:39.239 --> 00:49:44.320
two years was able to bring back
about twelve million dollars in grants, ten

668
00:49:44.360 --> 00:49:47.719
million dollars for Rockland specifically. And
this is money that makes a real difference.

669
00:49:47.880 --> 00:49:52.719
You know. I was at the
opening of one of these projects this

670
00:49:52.840 --> 00:49:58.159
summer of the brand new splash park
for kids in Orangeburg for the town of

671
00:49:58.199 --> 00:50:00.519
Orangetown. We were able to I
had a two hundred and seventy five thousand

672
00:50:00.559 --> 00:50:06.599
dollars state grant through the Senate to
help fund a significant share of the construction

673
00:50:06.679 --> 00:50:09.400
of this project. And then to
see, excuse me, a year later,

674
00:50:10.320 --> 00:50:15.039
to see a whole group I came
to the ribbon cutting, you know,

675
00:50:15.159 --> 00:50:17.920
one hundred kids happily there having fun
with families thanks to money that I

676
00:50:17.960 --> 00:50:22.239
was able to secure. That's the
kind of thing that makes, you know,

677
00:50:22.400 --> 00:50:24.599
me feel like I'm doing my job. But I think we need more

678
00:50:24.679 --> 00:50:28.679
of you know, And so the
projects, you know, I'm not going

679
00:50:28.760 --> 00:50:30.840
to go through all of them,
but you know things like that. You

680
00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:36.159
know, we've got money for every
town for road repairs, for highway equipment,

681
00:50:36.360 --> 00:50:40.320
for police equipment, for park improvements, for nonprofits to deliver the services

682
00:50:40.320 --> 00:50:45.639
they need to do, for libraries, for ambulance and fire and you name

683
00:50:45.679 --> 00:50:47.719
it. I mean, that's the
sort of stuff which you can see it,

684
00:50:47.760 --> 00:50:51.159
you can touch it, and it
makes a difference of people's lives.

685
00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:55.199
If there's one single issue, one
thing that you could change there, what

686
00:50:55.239 --> 00:51:01.400
would it be, one thing that
I could change about about how things work

687
00:51:01.440 --> 00:51:07.760
in the state? What would you
change? Oh? I think the way

688
00:51:07.800 --> 00:51:08.920
we do I mean it's a little
bit technical, but the way we do

689
00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:15.760
the state budget process is crazy.
New York people probably don't realize this mostly

690
00:51:15.800 --> 00:51:19.639
and no reason you would unless you're
a politics junkie. We stick everything into

691
00:51:19.639 --> 00:51:22.119
the state budget. You know,
you think of a budget as dollars and

692
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:24.119
cents and you know, money and
money out, and it is that,

693
00:51:24.199 --> 00:51:28.559
but in New York it's also a
vehicle for policy and a lot of times

694
00:51:28.559 --> 00:51:32.719
the most controversial stuff gets put into
the state budget on a must pass basis

695
00:51:32.719 --> 00:51:36.079
because you don't want to vote down
the budget. And you know, see

696
00:51:36.079 --> 00:51:38.719
funding for schools and roads and police
and parks and everything run out. And

697
00:51:38.760 --> 00:51:44.039
so you take some of the most
controversial policies that have happened in the last

698
00:51:44.079 --> 00:51:46.960
few years. You know, good
example being bail reform, which has been

699
00:51:47.559 --> 00:51:52.000
very controversial over the last few years, that was not passed as a standalone

700
00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:58.440
bill on its own, it was
included within the state budget and then basically,

701
00:51:58.960 --> 00:52:00.480
you know, put up on an
upper down vote for the state budget

702
00:52:00.480 --> 00:52:06.679
which includes all of these policies that
are not financially related. I don't think

703
00:52:06.679 --> 00:52:09.199
that's a great way to do policy. I think that things should be you

704
00:52:09.239 --> 00:52:15.360
know, budget should be for dollars
and cents, and policy should be policy.

705
00:52:15.679 --> 00:52:19.320
And you can do the legislative process
and work through the normal process and

706
00:52:19.440 --> 00:52:23.280
pass policy related bills that way.
And you know, as part of that

707
00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:28.880
process as well, in the budget, New York gives the governor a tremendous

708
00:52:28.880 --> 00:52:31.840
amount of authority to the point where
the legislature is not allowed to amend the

709
00:52:31.840 --> 00:52:36.320
budget. They can vote yes or
no, they can negotiate, they can

710
00:52:36.360 --> 00:52:38.719
ask the governor to amend, They
can urge the governor to amend. They

711
00:52:38.719 --> 00:52:43.480
can threaten to vote it down if
she doesn't amend but there is no ability

712
00:52:43.480 --> 00:52:47.800
into the state constitution for the state
Senator Assembly to actually amend the state budget,

713
00:52:47.840 --> 00:52:52.239
which is just baffling and frankly,
I think most people don't even realize

714
00:52:52.280 --> 00:52:57.760
that. Absolutely amazing. One last
question from one of our listeners. So

715
00:52:57.760 --> 00:53:04.159
a study listener, Van Dunk,
from the Ramapo Native American Indian tribe in

716
00:53:04.239 --> 00:53:08.239
Hillburn, and she wants to know
if you would meet with the Hillburn Coupon

717
00:53:08.679 --> 00:53:15.039
group to address some of their issues
of land use, etc. In Hillburn.

718
00:53:15.880 --> 00:53:19.559
So she wanted to know if you
would make the commitment to meet with

719
00:53:19.639 --> 00:53:23.159
them at some point coupon of Hillburn. That came from June van Dunk,

720
00:53:23.239 --> 00:53:28.280
she wrote in and I promised I
would ask, So I'm asking sure of

721
00:53:28.320 --> 00:53:32.960
course, always happy to and I've
met with coupon groups around the around Excuse

722
00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.840
me. I've met with coupon groups
around the county and met with people in

723
00:53:37.880 --> 00:53:44.599
Hillburn many times, and with members
of the Ramapo Native people and talked about

724
00:53:44.599 --> 00:53:47.480
some of the issues that they've been
dealing with as they're trying to get tribal

725
00:53:47.519 --> 00:53:53.039
recognition from state and federal governments.
But always happy to meet. I'd encourage

726
00:53:53.079 --> 00:53:55.679
June. It doesn't have to wait
until I'm in office. I'm happy to

727
00:53:55.679 --> 00:54:00.719
meet even before. Feel free to
email me. It's Elijah at Elijah for

728
00:54:00.760 --> 00:54:04.880
Senate dot com. That's the best
way to get me and always would be

729
00:54:04.880 --> 00:54:08.960
delighted to meet. Well. We'd
like to thank you for this intelligent conversation.

730
00:54:09.039 --> 00:54:12.960
It truly was I learned a lot. I always love doing that.

731
00:54:13.400 --> 00:54:20.760
Elijah reichlend Melnick, a former senator
and current candidate for New York State Senator

732
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:23.199
in the thirty eighth district. Thank
you for your intelligent conversation, Elijah.

733
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:27.119
This was great. It's a pleasure. Always good to be with you and

734
00:54:27.400 --> 00:54:30.280
have a wonderful night. Yes,
and happy New Year to you and your

735
00:54:30.320 --> 00:54:32.920
family. And of course, we
offer special thanks to our listeners who take

736
00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:37.679
the time to give us a voice
in their lives. Remember we offer a

737
00:54:37.719 --> 00:54:40.920
fresh topic every week. You can
catch us wherever and whenever you get your

738
00:54:40.920 --> 00:54:45.559
favorite podcasts. You can also check
us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook

739
00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:51.280
page. Like us, leave us
a comment too, and we also ask

740
00:54:51.400 --> 00:54:54.760
that you consider sharing being Frank with
others you know. Last to leave you

741
00:54:54.800 --> 00:54:59.559
with a couple of last things.
One is a quote from Abraham Lincoln.

742
00:54:59.559 --> 00:55:02.039
I think it's very apropos. I
always try to pick one that is for

743
00:55:02.079 --> 00:55:07.480
our particular program, and he said, my dream is of a place and

744
00:55:07.559 --> 00:55:13.239
a time where America will once again
be seen as the last best hope of

745
00:55:13.360 --> 00:55:19.400
Earth. Quite profound and some great
music for you will loves loved the Ruse

746
00:55:19.480 --> 00:55:23.360
Brothers and their latest release. This
is good thing for our engineer, Neil

747
00:55:23.440 --> 00:55:27.360
Richter. I'm your host, Frank
Lebono, and we hope to have you

748
00:55:27.480 --> 00:55:30.559
join us on the next being.
Frank, We're the only way to be

749
00:55:30.440 --> 00:55:50.159
is Frank. Thanks again, see
you next time. It took me a

750
00:55:50.239 --> 00:55:53.800
long time to know a good thing
when I see it now, what I

751
00:55:53.960 --> 00:55:59.119
see, Lukes is good to me. They said, too much of a

752
00:55:59.400 --> 00:56:02.920
good thing, it can be a
bad habit. The more you get,

753
00:56:02.800 --> 00:56:09.559
the more you need. Can't get
too much, can't get too much love

754
00:56:09.679 --> 00:56:20.880
this good thing, can't get enough, can't add enough of it's good good

755
00:56:21.039 --> 00:56:30.960
things. Well, I don't know
how I'm able to without it. It's

756
00:56:31.159 --> 00:56:39.000
just a mister and me. It's
the fame spot it. Try it one

757
00:56:39.239 --> 00:56:46.480
time, you will agree. Change
too much, hang it too much love,

758
00:56:46.639 --> 00:56:58.360
this goodness can't get it enough.
Can't add enough of its good things.

759
00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:09.760
I don't want just a little big
I don't want just the taste.

760
00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:15.320
Man, here go my brother.
As much as how I can't get don't

761
00:57:15.599 --> 00:57:22.000
money is good? Many to go
to Whiznow, come on, come on,

762
00:57:22.360 --> 00:57:29.360
come on, give me the good
thing. I said, come on,

763
00:57:29.599 --> 00:57:37.400
stong, give me the goody gunny
good day, I said, come

764
00:57:37.480 --> 00:57:44.679
on, come on, come on, give me the good thing. I

765
00:57:44.840 --> 00:57:47.480
said, come on, come on, come on, just give me a

766
00:57:47.519 --> 00:59:01.840
tottle busin good age. Don't know
what you need to be dollar. It's

767
00:59:02.119 --> 00:59:10.199
just a mystery means it's the money. There's no time about time one time

768
00:59:10.719 --> 00:59:17.159
you get a great can't get too
much. I can't get too much love

769
00:59:17.360 --> 00:59:27.320
this could be. Can't get enough, can't get enough this good thing,

770
00:59:28.159 --> 00:59:34.400
it's so good. I can't get
too much, can't get too mutch this

771
00:59:34.679 --> 00:59:52.159
good thing. Can't get enough,
can't get enough. Who comest come on,

772
00:59:52.480 --> 00:59:59.039
come on give me a good thing. Donald guy that I say,

773
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:02.559
come on, come home, come
on, give me a good thing.

774
01:00:04.519 --> 01:00:08.079
Give up. Dods said, come
on, come on, come on,

775
01:00:10.920 --> 01:00:28.199
suck at you, come on,
come on, come on. Sorry.

776
01:00:29.920 --> 01:00:31.360
This is Hudson River Radio Dot com