Speaker 1: When it comes to home improvement, you've got choices. Let's
say there's a hole in the bedroom wall and somehow
nobody in the house knows how it got there. You
could fix it, I mean there's always YouTube, right, but
you know.
Speaker 2: Three hours later it's gonna look like.
Speaker 1: A patch job, not even a good patch job. And
how about that leak under the kitchen sink. Yeah, you
said you'd get to it, and that was what two
and a half three months ago. If we're being honest,
we all have that list, the one word deep down
you're not totally sure you've got the skills to pull
it off. If it's my list, I'm calling Back of
All Trades. Holes in the wall handled, leaky sinks done,
full kitchen remodel, Yeah they got that too. And hey,
warmer weather's coming. How's that deck looking? Need it extended?
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Speaker 2: To win your old career gives you lemons throwing some
ice mix in some vodka.
Speaker 1: We call it a podcast from the Mac of All
Trades Studio in Fairport and driven by Victor Chrysler Dots
Jeep Ram.
Speaker 2: It's Billified, the Bill Moran Podcast. Well, hello and welcome.
Thanks for getting your pot on, Thanks for telling a friend.
Speaker 1: And that's how we spread the word about the pirate ship.
Speaker 2: It's all about the grassroots. So I I've been kicking
around in.
Speaker 1: My head for a while. I've wanted to talk to
this person because when I go to the Bilified Facebook page,
and I don't know if she followed it or how,
but she's one of the first things that pop up.
Mercedes Vasquez Simmons. She's a Monroe County legislator and reaching
for higher office and stuff. But that you know, okay,
so you go all right, and then but she keeps
popping up and I see things, and I see a
lot of activity in the community and the stuff with politics.
And then I see that she was a beauty pageant
winner and she has stuff in boxing. I see her
standing with Sugar Ray Leonard, one of my favorite boxers
of all time, and I go, this is either the
most intimidating resume I've ever heard of, or this is
someone who got real comfortable with being uncomfortable, and I
thought I got to find a way to get her
on the podcast. And I just reached out one day
and called the number. I thought it was somebody else
that answered. It wasn't. It was her, she answered, and
she said, yeah, I'd be happy to come on. And
I'm honored. But that is like I saw you standing
with Sugar Ray and I'm like, what the heck is this?
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right. Yes, a New York state licensed
boxing promoter. I may be right now the only female
licensed promoter in the state of New York. Have been
into boxing pretty much all my life, and I'm close
to twenty years ago. I started a company call it
Pretty Girl Productions. And that's a fun story too that
I'll have to share one day. But so yes, I
entered into the boxing space as a fight promoter.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Tried the boxing, you know, tried doing any amateur circuit.
Didn't care for getting punched in the face, so I excited.
There's got to be another way.
Speaker 1: It's always the punch. It's always the punch. You don't
throw when you're in the ring, right, it's the punch you.
Speaker 2: Don't throw that.
Speaker 1: You go, God, my head only right And you look
back at tape and it's it's interesting, Wow, what a
cool thing. But I mean that and beauty queen at
the same time, I mean, what are we doing here
that's like or not?
Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you about the beauty queen. Tomboy
Born and raised a Tomboy. I just you know, in
the city. You know, we were just a I wasn't
bully of the neighborhood, but love to fight. I love
to scuffle with the guys, and it was it was
fun to do that. My mother was working with a
group of individuals within our community to help save what
was the Puerto Rican Festival. At one time, we were
at jeopardy of losing the festival, and my mother was
so kind of recruiting me to become a participant in
this pageant because again they were trying to save this pageant.
They were doing their fundraising just to have at least
a few hours of festivities in a downtown area. And
of course you have to have a beauty queen. And
I'm like, beauty queen, I don't want to be I
don't want to do this now, I've already you know,
dad into dancing. I love dancing and did a cultural
piece that was true to me. In fact, I was
the only contestant that didn't have shoes on, because if
you understand what it is to dance a cultural song
like a bleana or boomba, they don't wear shoes. They
didn't have shoes, and that's I was just being true
to that, and apparently that resonated with the judges, and
that's how I was able to become the beauty creating
Miss Puerto Rico of Rochester.
Speaker 2: Why I was shocked too.
Speaker 3: I was like me, are you sure?
Speaker 2: I wasn't shocked at all.
Speaker 1: I really wasn't shocked at all, but I just thought, boy,
what a what a thing?
Speaker 2: It's usually one or the other.
Speaker 1: You don't see many people who have such love of
boxing then going beauty because, as you said, getting punched
in the face into the fun. But what was life
actually like growing up in Rochester? You just mentioned that
your mom saved the Puerto Rican Fest and I don't
want the Polish version, I mean the real version. And
I guess to sort of tag onto that. What did
being Puerto Rican here feel like as a kid, oh,
you know.
Speaker 3: I was immersed in a community that we're all Puerto Ricans.
I didn't know anything but what it is to be
Puerto Rican. So I was born and raised in the
inner City. In fact, I still live in the home
that I was raised. And I came back about four
or five years ago just to help my mother. I
noticed that she was slowing down. I noticed that things were,
you know, just weren't connecting as they should have. So
I said, you know, I'm just going to take some
time off from boxing in the private sector to really
focus on my mother's well being. And that was probably
the biggest blessing I could have had because it allowed
me to spend quality time with my mother and really
understand what her motives were. What why are you going
to so many meetings? And simultaneously, Father Tracy, who was
he's a pillar in our community, particularly in the Latino community,
his health started deteriorating. So I slowed down my traveling
because I was traveling quite a bit with boxing, and
I slowed things down, and I thought to myself, why
did God bring me back into this? And I think
everything is spiritual connected. Father Tracy was diagnosed with als
and quickly his health deteriorated, and you know, of course,
with not being able to be as mobile as he
wanted to, I was running him from one meeting to another,
and I thought to myself, from sun up to sundown,
he's in meetings impacting my community. And here is a
he's an Irish German priest. What was his investment? Why
did he care so much about our community? And as
I started meeting with individuals and attending some of his meetings,
it became very clear we didn't have a seat at
the table. And although we are a as a I
guess race getting into spaces that at one time we
weren't allowed, we still missed that voice. So Father Tracy
and just being able to shadow him and then shadow
my mother, I would deem the most as Batman and
Robin when anything was happening in our community. They were
front and center and bringing awareness to that community. Sadly,
Father Tracy passed away and then several years later my
mom did too, But that opportunity to be with them,
right to be in their space, to understand their why,
really resonated with me. Now again, Born and raised in Rochester,
My mother was a civil rights activist, and you know,
just by nature, because I was her only daughter, was
I was always with her. You know. In fact, most
people think that I was the only child and my
mother and several other children, but my mother just you know,
I was always with her. She was my best friend.
And understanding her why became part of my why. It
was part of my DNA growing up, just seeing what
she was involved with. Now, I wanted to be a
normal kid. I wanted to be outside playing kickball and
and playing baby dolls with the neighbors. But that wasn't
for me. That wasn't my path. My path was to
me more of a public servant, understanding the little grain
that everyone puts has the impact on a community. Shortly
after my mother was quite an extraordinary woman. You either
loved her, you hate her. There was nothing in between.
My mother called it the way she saw it, but
she earned the respect of many in our community. She
was able to mobilize our Latino community went when it
was time to take action again civil rights activists. She
fought for the right to vote. Many Puerto Ricans one
day migrated to Rochester and Latinos they of course they're
American citizens because right the relationship Puerto Rico has with
the United States, you're able to vote. But they also
saw as as cheap labor, the cheap labor they can come.
They worked the Kodaks, the Xerox, the Boston Moms, all manufacturing,
right because in the late sixties, early seventies is one
that we at this boom here in Rochester. But what
was missing was our ability to vote. Now, the ability
was there, however, there was a barrier, which was a literacy.
Now understand that that requirement was of of all, you know,
African Americans Latinos. However, those are the two major sectors
that were greatly impacted. So my mother worked with the
likes of Minister Florence John Lewis and to remove that barrier.
So shortly after, you know, Puerto Ricans were able to
vote again because of their citizenship, they were able to vote.
And that's really what changed things for the Latino community
and the African American community. I will tell you that
the relationship between the Puerto Rican community and African Americans
solidified during the Civil Rights movement. That's really what makes
us a strong unit.
Speaker 1: So in twenty twenty, this is so you just decide
that I'm going to run for county legislator.
Speaker 3: No political experience, you.
Speaker 2: Know, well that's what we need because the political.
Speaker 3: We worked on on we worked on campaigns. But me
as a candidate, are you kidding me? I'm the most
politically incorrect person you'll ever meet.
Speaker 2: Oh it's awesome. Those are the kind of people I like.
I love that, I'm telling fighters. Yes, yes, yeah, right right,
you're holding the air.
Speaker 1: I got spit buckets and wraps in your gauze and
a little bit of vaciline on the head. I got it, Mercedes.
I love this.
Speaker 2: This is amazing. And so because of.
Speaker 3: That, I'm the last person I think I shocked myself,
like what I just commit to. But it was the
fire again, just the seat. My mother's just her disappointment,
her hurt, her pain really burned the fire in me
to say why am I My mother? Would I could
I could hear her say that. You know, I did
come to her with of course, asking for advice on things,
but I I present her problems that I've been having.
My mother would just look at me, She goes, where
are you gonna sit on the sideline? So you're gonna
do something about it, and that I don't want to
sit on the sidelines. I refused to sit on the sidelines.
It's time for me to start taking action. And I
just did a swift from a shift from boxing. I
went from one ring to another because we tell you,
these are some serious battles that we've been having at
the county, within our community. Just as we have a
we now have a seat at the table. My goal
is to remain active in my community. And often i'm
I asked, you know, you're not in campaign season. You
can slow down. No, when you when you're campaigning, you
make commitments. When you're done with it, When you're done
with campaigning and you've secured SIE, that's when you actually
start working. You have to fulfill the commitments that you made. Right.
I find my model and that's what I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a It's an amazing model. It
sounds like you had an amazing mother, right. Uh. Can
I ask a personal question? Was was your dad in
the picture?
Speaker 3: He was? He was. My parents divorced when I was young,
but my father was very much part of our life.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: You know, you pick us up, you take us out
the pizza, knew everything that was happening.
Speaker 2: And but Mom was really the biggest influence.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1: Can I ask like a cultural question, it is the
it's because I come from like Irish, right, all Irish.
I could get second dual citizenship and it was very patriarchal.
But would you say that that Puerto Rican was more matriarchal?
Speaker 2: Is it really led by by by honestly.
Speaker 1: Like strong, strong, strong women that have really shaped I
mean you're talking about your mom. Who is I mean,
you want to talk about throwing a punch, right, she
threw a punch at eighty something?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I mean, hey, that's that's that's so like that and
that and where does it that comes from? Just a
love of her people and her culture and wanting it
to be better here.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I would say that it is. But culturally, and
you'll see that in many Latin American countries the concept
of machismo, right, that the male is a dominant factor.
And you know, my mother, my mother lived a very
abusive life and I sort of don't know I'm to
talk about that, but about her marriage, it was very difficult.
There was you know, domestic violence that which we had
to deal with, and I think it was because of
that that she emerged to be this this superwoman that
I've grown to admire now. When my mother passed away,
there was over two thousand people at her funeral. Yeah,
it was a traffic jam down Putton Avenue because she
insisted on having it at Saint Michael's Church. And we'll
talk a little bit about Saint Michael's Church because it's
such an important part of my life and the community
in this in this section of the city. But she was,
she was my superhero. It was two thousand people there,
and then she wanted to be buried in Puerto Rico,
so the governor did the whole half mess. It was
just beautiful. It was incredible that that she she earned
that level of respect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what well, what a testament you can always tell
like I remember.
Speaker 3: That fired up when I talk about my mom.
Speaker 2: Well you and as you should.
Speaker 3: Be, because I should thank you.
Speaker 1: Yes, as you should be, because that that's a pretty uh,
pretty amazing woman.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you all throughout my my childhood, people
didn't even know my name. They were like, oh, you're
law have the Blaine right, the daughter of Bilin, and
what an honor it is to be called like you
have the Blaine thinking, I was thinking about changing my
name to let you have. But Mercedes is Mercedes, and
I have my own fire, my own fight. But I
thank her, and there's no there would be no Mercedes
if there was no blank go along. Let's be clear
about that. And it's her fire. This the fight she
had back in the sixties, sixties, it's the same fight
we're having now. You know, equity to different things. And
it's not that there's a handout, right, we never expected
a handout, but give us a handsole that there is
an opportunity for us to do that. Mother came from
the Puerto Rico. She insisted on not taking any public funding.
My mother still does in us at an early age
that government funding equals they own you. And we never
took a dollar. And sadly, I mean we we suffered.
We suffered, We ate vegetation. I mean, this is what
we we ate from our from our garden. But it
was her mindset to say, don't take any money from
the government because that means they own you. And then
I think about everything that's happened at the federal level,
you know with snap and how they're at her quickly
to impact folks with snap. Right, that's that's a level
of control. So that that that placed back in my
in my mind as well. You know, my mother had
some points that so we never took government subsidies. My
mother worked two three jobs at a time. She was
a single mom trying to make a lot of things
happen in our community. How she found time to do
things and barely making thirty thousand dollars is a mystery
to me. But my mother was. She made it. She was.
She was a fighter and made no excuses. You know,
there was no such thing as you know, committing crime
and somehow being justified criminality is that criminality, there's no
excuse for it. Now, one of our biggest initiatives right
now is addressing absentee at the high school level. RCSD
is at a seventy percent absentee. Listen, if that doesn't
scare you to a point where you're like, what is
going on? Stop everything? I don't know what has but
yet I don't see the alarms, I don't see the hey, community,
we need to do something about it. So we're allowing
this chronic problem to continue and it's only gonna get
worse now. This is we've had the issue of the
absentee prior to COVID. COVID just amplified it and now
it's just something that sadly is accepted now. I applaud
the new superintendent. I think he had his work cut
out when he came on, but he's that's his focus
right now is a dressing absentee. But again, we're at
seventy percent at a high school level. That scares me
because they're not in the seats. If they're they're not
actually in these classrooms or are they they're definitely not learning,
and odds are they probably get into things that they
shouldn't be, So I'm terrified by it. That's our priority.
We're getting into communities, We're canvassing areas that most don't
even want to travel through. But that's what There's children
that are living in these communities and they have a
right to education.
Speaker 1: Everybody has the right to education. And I hear what
you're saying. It's very hard. And you know, I have
my sixteen year old son who lives with me. I
am not in those zip code and I have sometimes
some real battles, real battles to get them to school
some years, and it's like, you know, I've got ubers
or whatever I mean, But but I it's a little different.
I understand. However, it is a human problem. And when
a parent is trying to get food on the table
and doing these other things, you got so much bandwidth.
And if there's a way for us to recognize that
and help kids. And the other thing, Mercedes is maybe,
and forgive my friends, maybe our public school system's a
bit fucked up and we got to find a different way.
And the thing is like to me, and it's hard, right,
schools are a system and they have to be there's
standards we've got to you know, there's there's things. Being
a teacher is from personal observation over the past few years.
Speaker 2: Being in some schools.
Speaker 1: Is hard coming from non education. You know, I have
thirty years on the radium and stuff and then sort
of making this switch and dovetailing into podcasting and things
and needing some health insurance. So you go to a
school or where your sub or you'll do whatever. You
see how hard it is. But it's very easy to
come in and meet a kid where a kid's at
on an individual level for me, But I don't have standards.
I'm not the one who's got to get them to
you understand what I'm saying. So there's this, there's a
system with the school. Why can't we design this to
meet the kids where the kids are at. These kids
may not look there's all kinds of things. They may
not be neurodiversion, whatever, but they're capable and we can
find things for them that will reach them whatever that is,
wherever their interest is.
Speaker 2: How do we do more of that and less of
the other.
Speaker 1: And then it becomes a battle because you know, the
teacher's got pressure, and so the kid's not there, and
there's this and that, and then the kids you know,
and believe me being a class clown, right, but I was.
It's hard when there's disruption. Now take it to frustrating,
you don't. My dad was a he had He went
to Saint John Fisher, which is where I ended up
going as well, but I didn't grow up around here,
and he was. He was a major in philosophy. He
got a master's and a doctor in philosophy, and he
taught sixth grade English in the city of Poughkeepsie, Wow
for thirty five years. And he would always say to me,
you don't know how someone's day began, and what he
meant was and I would assume that the some of
this stuff happens in the city of Rochester as well,
that in the middle of the night somebody's door got
kicked in and someone in the home was dragged out
for drugs or whatever or whatever things are going on,
and the frustrations and the you know, and when I
think about it, when we're angry about something, it's usually
and it's much bigger than the issue at hand. It's
usually a lot of built up ship over the years
when you have no outlet and you have nobody helping you,
and you're looked upon as as as forgive me, but
you know, the Scuma society or the whatever or this
we're not helping. And yet we sit there and we go, well,
I don't understand. I don't get it. Well, come on, man,
it's human beings that need just a little guidance.
Speaker 2: That's all people need is a little guidance. And you.
Speaker 3: Looked for that, right. They need structure, they want struggle.
Speaker 1: Yes, boxing is so freaking wonderful for kids. I think
it's amazing for kids.
Speaker 3: I think so too. Everyone says, you know, how do
you enter into the boxing? It is such a violent
sport extraly, it's a very disciplined.
Speaker 1: It's a super disciplined sport. Hanky bar and have somebody
throw medicine balls at your stomach, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Or have them hit I did, I did, I did right.
Speaker 1: But it's okay because it's and it's really honestly, it's
a beautiful sport because it's about scoring points. It's not
all about the knockout. It's not all about this stuff.
I get it's about scoring points, and yes, there's some
things there, but the discipline of it is wonderful. And
I think that that kind of and it doesn't have
to be that. It could be something else. But I
find so many parallels to life. I see you stepping
into a different ring, throwing different types of punches, promoting,
promoting yourself, doing.
Speaker 2: All these things. It's it's amazing. It's it's really interesting.
Speaker 3: We really have to try it. And I think that
if you see things, and again, I think I think
that what my mother said, if you sitting the sidelines,
you know you're not, you're part of the problem. You
have to get in there and try to figure things out. Now,
I don't know if I mentioned this. My mother was
an educator. She worked at Number eight School. She retired
after thirty five years of service, and she would have stayed.
She started having health issues and that's slowed her down,
and you know, she decided, well, let them just retire.
But she was still very much vested in the education
of our kids. In fact, she had this little challenge
in our community. For each a she'd grant five dollars.
My mother was barely making minimum age, and every every
semester you see a line out of our house with
everyone collecting their five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and my mother
celebrated that. She goes, I don't care if we don't
have any money. After this, the metre fact that our
community now sees, you know, our kids are being rewarded
for it. So I applaud my mother for doing those
small initiatives that made such a big impact, because when
my mother passed away, I would get those calls, you
know when my mother, your mother did this, and then
I had no idea. My mother still had so many
connections from you know, my childhood where people are off
to college, they're in California, they're in Harvard, and they
were saying, your mom wrote letters of inspiration just telling
us that we and still do it. And just to
think my mother was always busy. How did she find
time to do all this stuff? But she found time.
My mother said, when you want to do something, you
will find the time to do it. That led me
into getting into education too. I worked as a substitute
teacher and I wanted to sort of kind of do
it as a tribute to her. At doing someone door
at Rubert do Clamented number eight school, I ended up
at Franklin and I'm like, oh, Franklin, huh, Franklin it is.
And Franklin, my goodness, Franklin has such great things again
you hear Franklin. In fact, we have barriers. If you
ever drive down down Norton Street and Hudson's it's quite
a site. And one of the things I want to
address with the City of Rochester. We've got to remove
those boulders. Have you driven by that by Franklin High School?
It is a welcoming site. It's not a welcoming site
for the community, for the students, for the parents, for anyone.
Speaker 1: So were they trying to prevent people from driving on
the property? Absolutely, I mean I got it. I mean
I get the thing. I think there's a better way, But.
Speaker 3: There's got to be a better way.
Speaker 1: Come on, he's looking what I'm hearing from you what
I'm hearing, and and correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I had a friend. He has a name that is
not very popular probably in the city of Rochester much anymore.
Speaker 2: And I really like this guy.
Speaker 1: And I thought he did a lot of really good work,
and I tried to get him. I used to push
him because I would say, you need to run to
be mayor, you need to do something.
Speaker 2: And it was.
Speaker 1: I hesitate to even say. But he ran a nonprofit.
They were putting some money in places they shouldn't. It
was Adam McFadden. Okay. Now, Adam would say to me,
and Adam would come on the radio show with me,
and he was part of our We did a high
school fantasy football because I wanted to highlight some of
the kids as much as we highlight the pros.
Speaker 2: Right, so we would all draft different players.
Speaker 1: And Adam once said to me that there's going to
be a real problem in the city because the grandparents
are raising the kids and they're going to die, like
they just age out. And as I'm listening to you,
your mother raised the community. Your mom raised the community.
I mean, that's what I'm hearing you say without you
saying that. But that's that's the story. And your mother's
not here anymore. And so here you are again, like,
but you're one person doing amazing things. You've started the
community thing, you've done this, you're a county legislator, you're
a school teacher.
Speaker 2: But you're one Where are all the people? What happened?
Speaker 1: Why don't we give a shit? What happened within the community?
To not give a shit? And I don't know if
that's even the accurate thing. And it sounds very bad
coming from a face that looks like mine, right, it
sounds judgment.
Speaker 3: Already has an opportunity and I think I said this earlier,
putting their little brain in this earth. We all have
the opportunity to do it. We just don't have the will.
It's quick to it's easy to criticize. It's easy criticize,
yea it istize, But what are we doing about it?
Everyone's sitting in the sidelines. So we have to shift
that mentality to say, if we're upset about what's happening
with our youth stealing cars, what are we doing as
society to help that. When I said that, you know,
we have kids walking on walking in with anchor bracelets.
It's a ownership. We have failed. We have failed. So
this is why I'm in education. This is why I'm
summing over at Franklin High School and have been there
for four years, and I can see myself being there
for many more years because I want to see those
kids that were in my ninth grade class walk the stage.
That's what I want to see it. And I tell
them all the time, and here they're worried about living
to see their their workers permit if I get six
you know, if I make it to sixteen, can you
help me find a job?
Speaker 2: I do if I make it to sixteen?
Speaker 3: And it was it was ninth grade, and they're asking
me that. I'm like, what do you mean? No, not
only are you going to make it till fifteen, you're
gonna make it to twenty five and four thirty five.
And you and I will laugh about this when you're
taking care of me because you're the generation that takes
care of me as as it is. But it was
a moment that I said, how horrific that they can't
see a future. Nothing worse than you know, this whole
political theater when they do it during your election year.
You're putting half a million dollars to a rec center,
community center right before election. No, no, no, do it
all your entire term and be present. There's elector's officials
that will come to Clinton and say, well, we're going
to have police escort. Can you walk with us down
Clinton Avenue? Absolutely not. You leave all those escorts and
in all this entourage, Let's have a real conversation. We'll
walk down Clinton, Joseph Stiles Street, anywhere you want to
walk in our city. Let's walk. I don't walk with
police escort, I don't walk with security. I walk with myself.
I have intentional conversation about what's happening in our communities.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, so you pull back the political mask and you
get to see what's really happening and not not the theater.
As you say, right, it's not the political theater. But
let's go back to something that you hit upon that
I think is so important in human beings. I believe
that everything in life is an inside job, and by
that I mean that there's really nothing in This will
sound ridiculous, people, what the fuck is wrong with you?
I don't believe anything. No one can really assert anything
on you. Now, there are certainly things, as you gave
it an amazing example in the beginning where your mother
was trying to vote. That seems like things were asserted
that way. Were they intentional? I don't know. Was it wrong?
Yes it was, but there was things. But I think
that one of the problems that I see so much
and I wish there was an easy answer to this
is building the self esteem in children. And when I
say that, I don't mean like I don't want to
be blown smoke up a kid's ass, And it's not
you know, And I hear people every kid shouldn't get
a trophy. Well, I had three sons and I don't
remember them out past the age of five playing soccer.
That everybody got a trophy, right, And even there there
was one kid who scored the most goals. And so
it gave you a meritocracy to try to build toward.
I don't know how you really build self esteem. But
the self esteem is what we need. And I don't
care where you live. The kids are hit with shit
on a constant level with social media, and it is
really really like they live on these things. That device
is never more than six inches away from them. It
feels like right, and so how do you have to
make those kids feel good about them? And when I
heard things like in communities and you say you're the Democrats,
I'm not the whatever you think, the others in the
party will say.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: One of the things that was coming out and it
bothered me was the defund the police, and they go,
you know, words mean a lot. Can we say something
else instead of defund the police and making you know,
like in any community it's the the or what's the
saying the bad apple spoils the bunch, right, And we
have that with police as well, where there's bad police officers,
but yeah, are they're bad teachers?
Speaker 2: Probably?
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of stuff, but we focus on those
and now all of a sudden, you know, they're this
and when we say defund the police.
Speaker 2: There used to be things that the police did that
were great. There were youth leagues, you know, one of the.
Speaker 1: Greatest basketball players to ever come out of this area
was in a police league.
Speaker 2: He used to play.
Speaker 1: So my point being is, okay, you want to defund
the police, well then let's reallocate some of the money
because those things impacted the community and it got.
Speaker 2: And you can't tell me like people go, well, how.
Speaker 1: Do you make a friend? You know, I'm older, Now,
how do you make a friend? You show up at
the same place all the time, right, and you just
as the conversation goes, we get to know a little
bit more more about each other and we share and share,
and then one day you're sharing something a little more vulnerable.
Speaker 2: And that's how it happens.
Speaker 1: That's exactly how it happens on a basketball court with
the police and the kids.
Speaker 2: And that's something that's not missing.
Speaker 1: And John Wallace is a product of that, went on
to play for the New York Dicks. A wonderful guy
still comes back and does all that. That is the
ship that's missing, and it's still.
Speaker 3: I'm a big fan of pal. I absolutely agree with
you on it. As I mentioned, we run a soccer
program where at the Latino Youth Development Resource Center, we
use one of the city Recreation centers and several years
ago I was approached by I believe the Sheriff's department
with a new group of new cohort was coming on
and they had to do some community service. So I said,
I would love to participate in that where they helped
coach our kids. They're all in the field with our
kids during that summer and the end the last game,
which is always ends with a little picnic and barbecut's
really nice. They did this and the kids loved it.
The last day they came in their uniforms. The kids
were like, wait, you're a cop. And it was such
a moment. But they build relationships, so all of a sudden,
he's not a cop with a an interview, you know,
and all the stereotypes they hear about a police. This
is a guy who couldn't play soccer or they scored
on them. You know. They all have this story and
these are lifelong relationships. But it changed their perspective on
an outlook on policing. We need to do more of that.
I really listen. I want to. I want to pal
right on Clinton Avenue. We can make this happen. We're
gonna have to. We're gonna have to work with the
police to make it happen, because you're right, that's what's lacking.
Trust me. I got quite a bit of a backlash
because I voted against uh continuing the funding of this nonsense.
We just can't continue it. I mean, let me just
tell you host of your things things were. They were
earmarked to hire a social worker and then they hired
someone that barely had a high school diploma. Do you
understand the impact that that has in our community. A
person has now given herself the title of a social
worker and doesn't have that. It just to me, you
are now the enemy of this community because now you
are advising folks that really need someone that's.
Speaker 2: Like a license.
Speaker 3: Right. Social workers is a serious yes.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: It's a very serious job, yes, And how.
Speaker 3: Dare you do that to our community, to play to
pretend to be something that you're not and call it help.
I don't need that help.
Speaker 2: And I don't know that.
Speaker 1: It's a disrespect for the police as much as it
is a disrespect for every human being these days. And
by that, I mean if you don't have a little
bit of something in here, you don't give a shit
about anything out there. Is kind of my point. And
when you're right, right, we see more shootings of police officers,
we could say, boy, there's a real disrespect for police. Well,
there's also teachers getting punched and we're not hearing about it.
We're also yeah, huh, there's also parents that are are
getting whatever. There's something where there is this hopelessness. And
when there's that, you know, the scariest thing is a
person who has nothing to lose. Yes, And when these
kids feel like they have nothing to lose and they're
telling you if I make it to sixteen, that's a
really scary telling thing. That to me is the bigger
concern here. And we need those community centers to show
these kids you matter and you got to figure out
inside here you matter and build something in here. Don't
listen to all this noise and shit out here. You matter, right,
And I think that that's where we're seeing. I don't
know that it's a disrespect for the police. I think
it's a disrespect for themselves and they have nothing to lose. Yeah,
and that's a scary.
Speaker 3: Scary absolutely right. Yeah. And I think we as society,
we owe it to this generation to just give back,
take time out of your busy schedule and spend time
with youth.
Speaker 1: Well, this has been a real pleasure for me. I really, really,
really enjoyed the conversation. Got you are one interesting human being.
I didn't know you kept popping up at my Facebook
page and go, man.
Speaker 2: It's this This chick's cool man. She's standing with some taterle.
What the heck? Wait? You want a beauty? What the
heck is going on here? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I want to find out more. And I'm glad I did.
I really appreciate it. I am uh and I will say,
please go learn more about what Mercedes is doing. And
her dad built that car. By the way, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2: I'm kidding. The car is named after the man's daughter.
Speaker 3: Everyone says that because joke is, what's your brother's name, Toyota?
Speaker 1: Now the car was named after the man's daughter. Come on,
just like Portia, same thing. Come on, all right, they
got those beauty queen daughters. I'm Bill Morea, you got it.
I'm Bill Moran.
Speaker 2: We'll see you next.
Speaker 1: Time somewhere.
Speaker 2: Dark Flow Murder.
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