Speaker 1: What's going on?
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It
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subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your
smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. I want to welcome to the program state
Representative Dean arp. He is representative from Union County. He's
also chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and so welcome, sir.
Speaker 1: How are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm great, Pete, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: I am doing great as well. So I didn't actually
bring you in to talk about appropriations. I did see
this story that ran at w r L and so
you were involved in some extra legislative incidents. Guests on
Monday night, So tell us you were driving with your
wife Ann and uh, so where were you on Monday evening?
And and uh and what happened on that trip?
Speaker 3: Yeah? We, uh, my wife and I were coming up
to Raleigh for our meetings to begin the week up
here in session. And we were coming through Rockingham, uh,
right right past the speedway there on number one and uh,
I happened to look over and uh and I saw
this smoke coming up. Uh and I and I, you know,
it just caught my eye and I thought, well, that's odd.
They're they're you know, brought somebody's burning leaves. And then
as we kept on driving, I saw that it was
actually coming out of this mobile home. Uh there. And
you know, I kept on going. I was running late
to a meeting actually, uh and I thought to myself,
well that that looked odd. There was there was nobody around,
you know, outside, and it just struck me a little odd,
and it just kept bothering me. I thought I need
to turn back, so I told I told Anne, I said,
I think that house is on fire. And so I
went on down. There was no break in the meeting.
So I was about a quarter mile down the road
and this was bugging me. So I turned around and
came back. And then that's when we realized that the
smoke was actually coming from that home there. My wife
jumped out to find she was on the phone with
the fire department trying to call them. But we didn't
know what the street address was, so she ran up
to the road to where the mailboxes were trying to
find that. And I was trying to punch it on
my GPS to find out what our street daddress. And
I looked up and I saw the door swing open,
and I saw this lady's look out, and then the
door closed back on her. And that's what struck me
as just incredible, was that there was somebody in there.
I said, oh my goodness, and so I jumped out,
and of course ran up to the door there and
opened up the door and this just heat and smoke
just rolled out. But miss Esther was was in there,
and uh. I later learned that she had taken the fire.
The place was on fire, and she had taken a
towel and some blankets was trying to put the fire out,
but she was in a wheelchair and her wheelchair got
entangled with the blanket, and so she couldn't roll out.
And all she had done was push open the screen
door and had come back, and she couldn't come forward.
So I ran in right there and saw her and said,
we got to get out of here. Is there She
was hollering for help and uh. And I was asking
her if there's anybody else in here, and she said no.
But I was able to pull her out and just
get her out of there, and just minutes later, the
whole whole place was, you know, engulfed in flame.
Speaker 1: So did your wife see the smoke too?
Speaker 3: She did when we turned around and came back. She
didn't at first. I mean, why I came back. She
saw the smoke, and there's adjacent houses, there's two houses
right beside there, and so she was running to those
houses to knock on the door to find out if
somebody was in there. And so she didn't see Miss
Esther in there, but she, in fact, she saw me
going up to go into the house, and she was
yelling at me, don't go in there, don't go in there.
Of course she didn't see miss Esther, but she was
banging on the door to get the neighbors to come
and and they're family members who live adjacent to her,
and they were just so crying and so upset because
they didn't they didn't know what was going on. They
couldn't hear her crying for help or anything like that.
But God was just there in such a real way,
you know, and just brought our paths across right at
the right time, and just so thankful that, you know,
we had a great you know, she's living, she's alive
on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Miss esther the resident of the of the home.
She's seventy seven years old, battling cancer and from what
I understand in the WREL report was that the home
was totally lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Are you aware of any kind of I don't know,
assistance or like a GoFundMe or something, or have you
heard anything like that.
Speaker 3: Yes, I've been in contact with a family obviously checking
up on her. They're they're calling me giving me updates.
She's doing well. They took her to the hospital obviously
for smoke inhalation. Her tire, tongue and her back of
her throat was just black with this soot. Her hair
was singed. But she is in recovery and everything, and
we're working with her family to set up a GoFundMe page.
So I just know so many people have reached out
to me and won't help her, and she she lost
everything in there, her medical bills and and everything. She's
still in and the rehab in the hospital.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, when you get when you get any information
like that, I'm happy to pass it along for folks
to help out as well. And so, oh yeah, absolutely,
So I'm curious, like when you you're driving down the
road you see the smoke, and I've been in a
similar situation. It was a vehicle parked in a in
a parking lot, and it's like it didn't register with
me at first, Like I'm looking at this thing and
I'm like, I think that car is about to catch
on fire. And right, so there's like a normalcy bias
like that that you got to kind of get pasted
at first. So like how long did you did you
experience that? And like how long did it take for
you to kind of like, no, I did see what.
Speaker 3: I just saw, absolutely, and and that and that is
because your mind is trying to make sense of something
that's that's very odd. In fact, when we pulled up,
I thought, well, that's odd that they're trying to burn
this trailer and nobody's out here watching it, you know,
like that, I was like trying to make sense of
what was going on. But you know, for me, it's
it's the God's small voice that just you know, just
tells you something's not right. Here and to turn around.
And you know, I think most of all, I think,
you know, what I want people to understand is God's
real and present with us and every single day, at
every moment, and he's you know, our scripture tells us
he's a refuge in a strength and a very present
help in trouble. And he was there that day just
to see I mean, let me see the smoke. I
didn't register that it was so much of a you know,
danger or whatever, but it was enough to just say,
you know, go back and take a look at that
further and right.
Speaker 2: And people have to be open to hear, to hear
the message and then to respond. I'm curious, though, when
you ran up there, did it ever cross your mind, like,
I mean, you see, oh my gosh, like there's this
smoke and there's a person in there and I got
to get help get her out. But did it ever
cross your mind that that you would that you could die?
Speaker 3: Well, I you know, it didn't cross my mind about
my own life or whatever. I think what struck me
is when I opened up the door and she was
back in there, and I went into the to the
trailer there she was pretty close to the door right there,
and I didn't have to go back in far. But
what struck me was the tremendous amount of heat that
was there, and I couldn't believe that she was in
that heat. Pete iking it. I've got this fire outdoor
fire pit and it's like you putting your head over
the top of that heat as it just comes out
the top, and that's that's the intensity. And she was
sitting in there in that heat, and that's what struck
me as there and if she was any further back
the smoke, because it was I was breathing that toxic
like plastic smoke. You know, I just couldn't believe she
was actually in there. And then just the heat from
the fire that was inside was just incredible. It's after
that that you sit down and you reflect on what
did I just go through, you know, and just got
God God was there and protected us both for sure.
Speaker 2: Stay Representative Dean rp is from Union County and well, I,
I mean, you didn't save me, but thank you, and
I think you did a wonderful thing. And I know
that you're you're not interested in kind of promoting yourself
in this, but I feel like it's a good way
to let people know that God puts people in the
right place at the right time, and if I can
help spread that message, then I'm happy to do so.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely so.
Speaker 2: All right, Representative ARP, thanks so much for your time,
and thank you for what you did.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Pete.
Speaker 1: All right you, yes, sir, take care. All right.
Speaker 2: I hope you had a happy holiday season. But tell
me if something like this happened at your house. Your
family and friends are gathered around, maybe y'all are in
the living room, You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then
somebody says, hey, Dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did
you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets
all quiet. All eyes are on Dad, who says, oh,
you know, well, I've been meaning too, but I just
having gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless
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create avideo dot com. I didn't want to say this
to him, but like, that's the behavior of a person
who behaves courageously and heroically. I didn't want to embarrass him,
but it is like, that's what That's what everybody would
hope that they would do in similar circumstances, and so
he should be recognized for it, even though he doesn't
want to be, you know, he he he wants the
message of this incident to be about, you know, doing
good and and listening to God and following God's path.
And I'm happy and I agree, but I also want
to give him recognition for what he did, because not
everybody would do that. Some people would just keep driving
down the road. You're late for your meeting, you just
keep driving down the road and you can say, well,
you know, they'll that wasn't what I thought.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It's a That's why I asked about the normalcy bias,
because it it is a real thing, and it's why
people don't respond to extraordinary things, to unusual stimuli, because
your brain doesn't know what it's looking at, and it's
just easier to say, well that there's it's here, you go.
It's the same reason why whenever you hear about, you know,
horrific mass shootings or something like that, people always say
they thought.
Speaker 1: It was fireworks or something.
Speaker 2: Right, that people don't ever think in those types of
ways because it's so outside of the ordinary, outside of
the normal, and so we have this bias. You don't
recognize what it is that you're seeing when you're seeing it,
and then it's easy to just kind of dismiss something away.
It's why, you know, people hear somebody calling for help
and or screaming and they're just like, you know, oh,
I'm sure there's a rational explanation for it. I'm sure
there's a normal reason for that, and there isn't. It
is actually somebody calling for.
Speaker 1: Help, and.
Speaker 2: A lot of people ignore it because of the normalcy bias.
If they even think past it to start weighing like
should I turn around. Should I turn the car around
and go back there? And then it's like, well, but
then I would be driving onto their property. And what
if everything is fine, and you know, I go up
to the door and they treat me like I'm crazy,
Like you can find reasons to not turn the car
around and to not go up to the door, right,
But when you get there and you realize this house
is on fire, and then you see somebody inside. And
this woman was in a wheelchair and could not get out,
and according to the report at wil her wheelchair was
so hot to the touch, like the metal parts of
the wheelchair that he Arpe said it was like touching
a frying pan, and she would have died, you know,
but for him listening to that voice. So the messages
when you hear the voice, pay it attention. Here's a
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Speaker 1: Last a lifetime.
Speaker 2: Let me go to the phones here, let's talk with Tim.
Welcome to the program.
Speaker 4: Tim, Hey, Pete, thanks for taking my call. I really
really enjoy the show. Those type of rescues where the
gentlemen helped rescue that lady from that house fire. Those
those incidents are more common than you think, Pete, where
your average citizens put themselves in a position to become
what some people would call a hero. As matter of fact,
I've been in the same situation. I was on the
way up to the North Carolina Mountains. I was from
Charlotte at the time, So me and my buddy was
taking a road trip up to the mountains and we
drove past this like millhouse somewhere up near Newton or Conover,
and we've seen smoke building out from under the eaves
of the house all the way around the house. Oh,
so I told him, I said, man, pull over, his
house is on fire. So we run up on the
front porch and started knocking on the front door, and
we couldn't get anybody to the door. And I said,
keep knocking. I'm going around back. And I run around
back and I started knocking on the door and nobody
was coming to the door. And I thought, man, I'm
gonna have to go in here, you know. So I smashed.
This is back when houses had screened doors. I smashed
on the door and snatched that screen door open, and
then about that time this man come to the door.
I said, Man, the house on fire. You know what's
going on? You got smoke coming around the head of
your attic. He said, Oh, ain't no problem. We just
got a pot of beans on the stove.
Speaker 1: God Lord, So did you owe him for the door?
Speaker 4: No, that's exactly what I was thinking. Pet. Well, I'm
gonna get out of here before he notices I broke
the screen doors. But I guess his stone pipe in
the attic didn't go through the roof. Good but improper.
I that's the normal thing, all right.
Speaker 1: Tim, I appreciate the call man funny story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a There was a a friend of mine,
and I didn't know this story until after he had
passed away.
Speaker 1: I knew him.
Speaker 2: He was a high school buddy of mine, and Jimmy
Vega was his name, and uh he and is he
had gone to the Uh it wasn't the Coast Card
it was the Maritime I'm trying to remember the name
of the U the college, because he had gone there
for one year and then that summer after his first
year he died.
Speaker 1: In an accident.
Speaker 2: And but the one of the stories that they told
that nobody knew because he never told anybody. But his
girlfriend told the story that he had jumped into a lake.
They were driving someplace and he saw a car go
off the road and it went into a little lake,
a little body of water, and he pulled over and
he ran out into the water, swam out there and
like rescued like this mom and her kid or something,
and then got back in his car and went and
continued on like and never never told anybody. So yeah,
I agree Tim with Tim's point. It happens a lot
more often than than we are aware. I am sure, Patty,
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Hey, Patty, Hey there. I just wanted to you know that,
as Dane Art would say, you get a little message
in your head sometimes that you just need to pay
attention to it. Dan Arp is the kind of person
that we needed Washington rather than in Raleigh. He is
a good, strong, hard working, the thinking man that cares
about people.
Speaker 1: It would seem yeah, it would seem so.
Speaker 2: Although if you if you, if you listen to Dan Bishop,
one of the things that frustrated him was how how
difficult it was to actually get anything done up in Washington,
whereas you know, we do need good competent people to
volunteer their time and expertise at the local and the
state levels.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well he does a great job for Union County and
I've tried for years to conven but he doesn't listen.
So now the whole world.
Speaker 2: Here, So this is uh so is this like this
is a public pressure campaign to draft There there you go.
Speaker 5: I'm I'm advertising myself for his campaign manager.
Speaker 2: Okay, Patty, I appreciate the you too, man, Yeah, take care,
take care. Like I am, I am not aware of
the draft Dean for DC campaign, but but yeah, like
I said, there, I saw something the other day.
Speaker 1: Actually, do you know if you were to count up
all of.
Speaker 2: Like the people who are in offices that are representing
other people, like all representatives, what would you think would
be Like at what level do you think there would
be the most amount of people in sort of you know,
elected representative offices. It's obviously not you know, the US
Senate or the House up in Washington.
Speaker 1: It's not at the.
Speaker 2: State level either, tally up all the state lawmakers, it's
not there either. So you're thinking, Okay, maybe county or
school boards or cities and towns. No, it's not that either.
Speaker 1: You know what it is.
Speaker 2: Hoa's. There are more people in hoa's and they are
actually elected and representing people. And I saw that last week.
I was like, that's amazing. But if you think about it,
it makes a lot of sense. You know, tens of thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands maybe of people that do
that stuff and usually for no pay. So anyway, just
throwing that out there, all right, if you're listening to
this show, you know I try to keep up with
all sorts of current events, and I know you do too,
And you've probably heard me say get your news from
multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias,
which is why I've been so impressed with ground News.
It's an app and it's a website and it combines
news from around the world in one place so you
can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it
out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I
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using ground News a few months ago and more recently
chose to work with them as an affiliate because it
lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom.
The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored
by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check
dot Ground, dot News slash Pete. Subscribe through that link
and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use
the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.
Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. I mentioned this the other day, but the
Alzheimer's Association Western Carolina Chapter Congratulations Charlotte, came in number
twenty four in America for the amount of money that
was raised as part of the twenty twenty four Walk
to End Alzheimer's. The Alzheimers Association puts on or puts
out a the top thirty list of the markets and
the chapters that generate the most money through these fundraising efforts,
and Charlotte has been in the top ranking since twenty
sixteen and is the largest fundraiser for Alzheimer's and other
dementia awareness, care, support and research. Nearly two thousand participants
in last year's walk, and thank you to everybody that
came out and walked with me. I appreciate that, and
everybody that donated to my team, thank you very much.
If you donated to the Alzheimer's Association, thank you. The
Charlotte region raised seven hundred and forty five thousand dollars
through that walk last year, and preparations are already underway
for the twenty twenty five walk, which is going to
be in October, and I'll give you more details on
all of that. Several local teams I should give a
shout out here for the work that they did as well.
There were several teams and individuals that earned and national
rankings in the top fifty walk teams nationwide Senior Living Communities.
They came in at number forty four. They pulled in
almost sixty eight thousand dollars. In the top one hundred
were Charlotte participants Josh Thompson, Stuart Goldstein, and Wesley Missing
And those the last two there were part of Team Cadwallader. Yeah,
they were both on the same team. Josh Thompson was
on Senior Living Community's team. And so if you want
information on joining the walk, it's a lot of fun,
it's some good exercise too, and it's a great cause.
All of the money goes to fund you know, research,
twenty four care support for you know, family members and
people who are living with Alzheimer's. They do advocacy work.
They also fuel a bunch of research, and there's been
a lot of progress in that area over the last
year with FDA approval of a new drug to help
help slow down the pace. Nationwide, there were like three
hundred and seventy one thousand people that participated in the walks.
Speaker 1: So it's a great event. It's a great charity.
Speaker 2: I was a supporter of theirs, you know, just personally
for years, probably now close to twenty years. My grandfather
had Alzheimer's and so it's a cause that was has
always been personal to me. So I was always supporting them.
And then when I came back to WBT, they were looking,
you know, because there was an affiliation there. They had
been doing some work with my colleague at our sister station,
Ramona Holloway, and so she asked, Hey, would you be
interested in helping I said absolutely, And so I've been
helping with this ever since I got back. And it's
a really good cause. They do really great work for
especially the family members the caregivers, the you know, that
are on the front line, and it is a very
difficult thing for for the family members to take care
of their loved ones who are getting progressively worse, you know.
So thanks again and congratulations to everybody that that helped
with that effort. In the next hour here, I'm going
to get into this big event that was held up
at the at the White House yesterday where President Trump
signed an executive order regarding transgender students or men playing
on women's sports. And what has been pretty amazing to
watch is the that the left does not have a
response to what we saw yesterday. And if you haven't
seen the images and the video that came out of
that event, it's it is powerful, and it's probably a
little bit scary to a political organization that is on
the wrong side of that issue and can't break free
of it.
Speaker 1: So we'll get to that. There is a related story.
Speaker 2: And I'm probably not gonna have time to finish it
here before the top of the hour newscast, so I'll
fold it into to the next hour. I'll start I'll
start here in the next hour, which is that there
is a bill that has been filed in the North
Carolina legislature that would allow students who are attending homeschools
or private schools to play sports or other extracurricular activities
at their local public school.
Speaker 1: And this has gotten the left outraged.
Speaker 2: And I read a tweet the other day from some
idiot on Twitter, and there are a lot of them,
and so it's a target rich environment for me, which
is he was saying that this is some sort of
DEI like, oh, good to see your Republicans are for
DEI now, which is just completely dumb.
Speaker 1: It's just dumb, and.
Speaker 2: You would think that people in the public school system
and defenders of the system would be celebrating this. I'll
explain all right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank
you so much for listening. I could not do the
show without your support and the support of the businesses
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support them too and tell them you heard it here.
You can also become a patron at my Patreon page
or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so
much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.