Yeah, welcome back to Community Matters. I'm Jay Fidel here on Think Tech, and we're talking with a peacemaker today. Are you ready? A peacemaker. Peter Adler, I'm gonna talk about Civil War. We're talking about a novel that he's writing and has written, which is now circulating for publication, which reflects thoughts that he has had in which I agree with him about concerning the ongoing civil risks, disturbances, and possibilities of civil war. Have we ever finished fighting the Civil War? Peter, welcome to the show. This is gonna be kind of an important show. Thank you for coming down. Thanks, Jay. I so admire what you are doing. The citizen journalism effort, and that's partly why I'm on your board, because I just believe strongly in this and what you're doing. Congratulations to you and Carol on standing it all up and moving it along. Thank you. We enjoy it. It becomes a dedication for us. So peacemaker, tell us about being a peacemaker and how you look at the world through the eyes of a peacemaker. You know, for the last 30 years, I've been working in one way or another as a mediator, as a facilitator, as a planner, and a strategist when there's a lot of disruption. And it's been the work that I've done. I was head of the Neighbor Justice Center, which has now evolved into the Mediation Center of the Pacific. I worked for the Supreme Court for a number of years. I headed up a big science and public policy program in Colorado for a number of years. I was sort of wooed away for a little while. And then I realized the surf wasn't that great in Colorado. So, you know, I've been doing this for a long time. And I also have a number of senior folks like myself who've done this for a long time. And we have a lot of conversations and we compare notes about our cases and without revealing confidences and strategies and tactics where I was on the hunt. And I'll just tell you, when I work on something and it achieves a good resolution, I feel like a million bucks. I still feel that way. I don't make a million bucks, but I feel of that way. And so I love what I do. It's in my DNA and it's the only thing I know how to do. And your book, you know, reflects your experience in peacekeeping and the Peace Corps, your experience in peacekeeping in your Operation Mediation Company, Accord 3.0 and your career in general. But now you have this book and the book that it's called Defiance at Duck Springs, the story of small town America and the next Civil War. That is a long way from peacekeeping. But it sounds like you have created at least, you know, for the book, a world perhaps that goes further and explores reality as it is coming upon us. The sea change of our world here in COVID, the sea change of our world under Trump. It's a new world you're looking at in this book. Can you talk about the relationship of your peacekeeping experience and the world you've built in the book? Well, it's probably an odd thing that I wrote this, but, you know, I am an inveterate scribbler and writer and I write mainly for my own self and I've written four books and you've seen one, The India 40 and The Circle of Demons book, which was the Peace Corps story. But this, I wanted to write, I tried my hand at writing a novel and it takes place in 2037. So it's out in the future, but it's not that far out.  And he kind of runs off to a cabin deep in the woods of Washington state. And it's actually a place where I sort of lived for a short period of time out in the woods. And he is slowly drawn into, he really wants to escape everything. He's running from some miseries. And he really wants to stay secluded. But he actually falls in love with a local woman who in this little town and while they're doing that, a new civil war is breaking out in the United States. And it's a pretty fulsome war. It's a real fight. There's been a coup d'etat, a lot of the Washington DC and some of the state capital governments have been decapitated. And so it's about this violent coup d'etat and about this small town which puts up a resistance. And after the president is assassinated, so it's a novel. And I wrote it partly out of my own fears for what lies ahead and as a precautionary tale. But I also wanted to write a good story. I wanted to write a yarn. I like writing. I like reading stories and I like writing stories. I like going to movies and when I have the time to do all that. So I worked on this for a couple of years and it is now sitting with a literary agent through a friend of mine and moving around to some publishers presumably in New York and elsewhere. And we'll see if it comes out. And if it does, I'll be very happy. It's not about making a lot of money. It's much more about kind of sending a warning flare up, a warning signal, not that there aren't enough of them in and around. That's the story, Jay. So did you fold in the insurrection somehow? Yes. I mean, it takes place through an insurrection, a right-wing insurrection. And there are characters in there that would vaguely resemble certain guys like Trump or Flynn or others who are really bent on separation and takeover. They think the country's gone bad. They think it's really gone deeply bad. And they really stage a revolution and they want to, the cities are on fire. I mean, they've built an army. They've united militias and protest groups, right-wing protest groups, you know, and they've pulled them together. They've created something that looks a little bit like QAnon, that's called, that I call Faro. And they've managed to pull it off. But at the end, there's a lot of resistance and this small town is one part of that. So happy ending? Yes, but I don't want to. We need a happy ending, you know? It's got a good ending in it to it, it's got a lot of, you know, grim stuff that happens to people in between. Well, I guess you explore the whole social compact and the social chemistry, if you will, that has created our bifurcation in this country, our divisive, you know, world that we live in. And so, I mean, to me, that's a fascinating part of the story because I think we're living in that. You are writing about what we are living. Well, you're absolutely correct because I think you can, we will be able to look back on our time and we'll see the seeds of things that we either, that really pulled us apart and destroyed us or that we overcame politically, socially, culturally, economically. And my hope, I'm an optimist. I'd always stay optimistic. And, you know, you can't do the kind of work that I and my colleagues do if you're not optimistic, but you scratch an optimist and you'll find skeptics and a little bit of cynicism too and worries. So this book was kind of the result of all that. You know, I want to, I did a poll recently to a lot of my colleagues. I sent a poll out to about 50 people and I said, what do you think the prospects are for a civil war? And I got a lot of really interesting numbers. I said, seven high, one low, what's, give me your number on the, on if you're making a prediction. And most people said, it's probably around four. It could be a serious outbreak. And then another said, you know what, gee, it all depends on how you define civil war. But I've been watching politically and socially and culturally what is going in on the country.  And there's a lot of white noise, but there's also a lot of signals that come through in the noise. And one of the ones, I just want to read you one that came my way that I went, my goodness, that's us. And this is from a Sri Lankan guy, Indy Samar Niva who dealt with a prolonged civil war in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers and all that. And he wrote this. He said, I lived through the end of a civil war. I moved back to Sri Lanka in my 20s just as the ceasefire fell apart. Do you know what it was like for me? Quite normal. I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don't understand. They're waiting to get personally punched in the nose while ash falls from the sky, but that's not how this happens. As someone who's already experienced societal breakdown, here's the truth. America has already collapsed. What you're feeling is exactly how it feels. It's Saturday and you're thinking about food while the world is on fire. This is normal. This is life during collapse. If you're waiting for a moment where you're like, well, this is it. I'm telling you, it never comes. Nobody that comes on TV and says things are officially bad collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit. Most of it happening to someone else and that's all it is. I was struck by this guy who said, we kind of adapt. It's sort of like the frog in the water that's being heated. You don't jump out. I mean, it just dies eventually. And we're kind of like that. We're sort of immunized. And it's very hard, given all the white noise in the social media and in the television set on Fox News, on CNN, on MSNBC. It's very hard to put the signals together and read the signals in the noise. Yes, absolutely. Yes, it's like the frog in the water. And the job of the ardent observer is to connect the dots, to remember. You know, what you describe is a scenario where you forget what happened and how this week is different from last week. And as you say, punctuated by events that are surprising and unpleasant, but your day goes on, your week goes on. It's just somehow different. And it's on a decline. You know, for example, it takes a little longer to get to see a doctor. There's not so much bread on the shelves in Safeway. You know, maybe some of your favorite restaurants are gone. Maybe the retail stores aren't around. And you're not dealing with as many people as you used to deal with. And the newspaper is reporting things that are unpleasant, but it still reports and so forth. So one of the things you've said, Peter, and I would like to explore is that the world is on fire. And if you do connect the dots, you could easily come to that conclusion right now today. And I suspect that your book covers that. Your book is a look into the future as you might see it. So why do you think that the world is on fire? What are the indicia that you would point to for the proposition that the world is on fire? All you have to do is just watch yesterday's news about what's going on with Russia and Ukraine. And when you see the external version, there's a part of a group that has been talking a lot and exploring a topic called gray zone conflict, that hybrid warfare. And it's an interesting situation because the definition of gray zone conflict is one in which there's, you have neither war nor peace. You're in between, you're in a kind of a limbo land. And that's kind of what I think is going on today, both internally in the United States as well as internationally. I think we're in a odd state of gray zone conflict where we're not fully at war, although we might be in Russia now, who knows what's coming there. But, and we're not really at peace. We're in this new world. And one of our other colleagues, Fig Newton, he can talk about this. He knows what's going on. He's a former three star, air force guy. And he thinks a lot about hybrid warfare and the challenges. And that's why he calls his part kind of point zero. What do we do before it all breaks out? And, but we're in this odd state. We're in a very hot zone state right now. And you don't know what, sort of like we know what temperature water boils at, but we never know what molecule boils first. We don't know where it's gonna erupt. So the novel was a piece of fiction kind of speculative and certainly a precautionary tale. But, you know, I'll just say one more thing, Jay. In my day to day work, I talk with colleagues who are like me mediating very complex cases all around the country. And it's been amazing to me how much this world of gray zone conflict is preoccupies us. And so that's part of reason why I wrote this blog piece, which I think I sent to you. And basically I said, what do we do? You know, what do we do about this? And at the end of the day, we guy, we these, you know, would be peacemakers and mediators have to go out and just do our job. We have to do our work. We have to go do our job because I don't have traction on what's going on in DC.  It's a movie with that. Have you seen that movie? I haven't seen it, but I know of it. And I've heard about it. I heard it's great. It's extraordinary because it tracks on exactly what you're saying. There's what you don't, you don't really have power to change things. You know, a lot of people say, oh, run for office. That's not going to really change things. You can run for office and you can articulate positions. You can come on think tech, okay? Every day and you can warn people about, you can write books every day and warn people. But that may not change a thing. And that's the premise of this movie. And if you watch it carefully, you will see, you know, it's funny, but it's not funny. In all of humor, there is tragedy.  And they know that they have six or seven minutes to live and they're talking about what brand of coffee do you like to shop for in the local grocery? Why? What else are you going to talk about? That's why. Well, yeah, that's kind of where we're at, isn't it? And you know, I always wondered, Jay, because we think of, because we live here in Hawaii. What does that mean for us? Because we are far away from other places, we're distant from a lot of these kind of bigger politics that go on, and we have our own set of problems and miseries that we wring our hands about and we're worried about and rightfully so. But, you know, we have a little bit of distance on that, but that could collapse in a minute. It could collapse in a minute.  And the guy from Bangladesh, was it that you quoted? That's very interesting, you know, you live your life, you go every day, and it's pretty much the same, but it's a gradual frog in the water kind of experience. And at some point along the way, you say, hmm, this isn't really working at all. I think I'm boiling. What in here? But the word erupt is really worth focusing on for just a moment, because things are changing and the changes are not necessarily good. And they speak of the possibility of an eruption of a cataclysmic event that changes everything for us. You know, another insurrection, an insurrection that works, an insurrection destroys the federal government, while the government in general, trouble in Europe that crosses the Western boundary of Ukraine, which is entirely possible now. So I guess that's, how do you build that in? Because that eruption could be a very bad time. And I was gonna say, let me throw it in before I finish my question, your book and the notion of fighting a civil war and the notion of, you know, having social disruption as the kind that you and I have never seen or even imagined in our lifetimes, this kind of violence kills people.  And the problem with dying, I'm gonna articulate this now, the problem with dying is you can't speak anymore, you can't write books, you can't run for office, you can't, you cannot come on a Think Tech show and talk about this because you're dead. And the history is spoken, history is written by the survivors, not the, and so in all of this possibility of a civil war and disruption, people die. How do you factor that in? Well, you know, Jay, one of the realities is you and I and a lot of our good friends and colleagues, although some have passed away, but most of us are still on this side of the grass. And so while we have a breath and while we can do things and while we can think about things and while we can act within our orbits of action, wherever we can do, we have that capability. But the world is really, I think is melting, it's melting away and it is a hot zone now. It's really a gray zone with a lot of different kinds of conflicts. And I don't know the points at which they did. The book I wrote, the speculative novel, it's a novel and it's a fiction, but it's speculative and it takes place in 2037. And then after a lot of, you know, historical traumas that run up between now and then, none of which would be surprising. But all of a sudden it does erupt. All of a sudden there is a decapitation. All of a sudden a right wing militias are connected. And all of a sudden there are characters around who would love to decapitate the government and take over. It's a real, it's one of those distant realities and my fingers are crossed that it doesn't come true.  We, you know, there's something about confronting those worst fears, which is kind of what I did in this novel. And then it's back to work. I gotta go work every day and just do what I do. But it was a real interesting experience writing this. I do hope it gets published and eventually it'll come out someplace. I know that, you know. No, I suspect it'd be a great cable movie too. Maybe a series, you know. It's more exciting than some of the things that I'm seeing on cable now, frankly. So what does your world look like after the decapitation? What is life like in that next model? Because, you know, to me, I know there will be changes. I know some of them will be very unpleasant. I know there's a real possibility that I, my friends, will not survive. But assuming I do, I won't have democracy around. I won't have a lot of the trappings of civilized communal life of a social fabric that is mutually supportive of a caring community. I know those things are at great risk. What is your world like as you portrayed in the book? Well, remember it's a fiction. So, and it takes place over in 2037 and 2038. And by 2039, there's a civil war is over. It's been fought off. It's been a resistance that's popped up in many different places. And everybody, what's really going on is rebuilding. All of a sudden we have to rebuild. We have to rebuild Congress, the presidency, small towns, small communities. Everybody has to rebuild because there's been a lot of carnage. And that's my guess is what would happen. We'd go through these episodes and it will rebuild. Just like our people rebuilt after World War II and you can't say they did everything nice, but that's what life is like. It's a series of very, very hard moments and then a carrying on. I have a colleague of mine who's a very, very fine mediator. He's an attorney and a guy. And once in a while, no, maybe three times a year, we go down to the beach and get some coffee and sit and talk about the meaning of life. And my conclusion always has been the meaning of life is possibility. It's all about possibility. It's all about the remaining.  So for me, there's always, I'm optimistic. I'm sunny side up. I kind of look over my shoulder. I'm pretty careful. As Woody Allen once said, the cup of life is more than half full, but it may have a little arsenic in it. And so we're mindful. We're trying to stay mindful of, but we're trying to also, you know, stay optimistic that even through all the ups and downs and the horrors of the last century and the perspective horrors of this century that possibility exists and we will redo things. Remember, it's a fiction. It's a piece of fiction.  Who nobody could do that. I mean- Oh, it can only speculate. Absolutely, I accept that. It's a novel. I hope it's a good read for when it gets published that people enjoyed the story too. Cause- So we have some overwhelming things, you know, that are going on in our lives aside, aside from, you know, the political Misha Goss, both here and in Europe and elsewhere. Don't forget Latin America. Don't forget China. Anyway, the question I'm interested in is, where do you put these non-political social events like for example, COVID? Like for example, climate change, which is inexorable.  What is he wasting his time about? Anyway, my point though is where do you put them into the fiction, the speculative fiction that you're writing about? Well, there's a lot of things that, you know, and one of the writers calls black swans, unpredictable events, things that we nobody could see. They just came along and they have big reverberations. COVID is a little bit like that for us. Climate change is one that we have foreseen, but the consequences of it have really come to the point where we take action, serious actions.  Nobody expected the breakup of the Soviet Union and nobody would have predicted Putin would try to put it all back together. These are kind of black swan events. Black swans are very rare. A lot of white swans, but every once in a while we get a black swan. And so we can't predict the feature with any certitude. All we can do is try and manage the messes that we have at the moment with the hope that it will come together and prevent some other one. But I have no delusions about this. I think that life is imperfect. The future is imperfect. We won't be able to predict everything that goes on. And all you can do, Jay, is do what you do so well at Think Tech, which is bring about the right conversations and alert people. And all I can do is my work as help people have these difficult discussions on snarky problems, try to solve them. It's all we can do. Well, that takes me to another question though.  We have biochemistry that drives us, I'm afraid. It's not necessarily intellectual process. It's biochemistry.  And you try to put us back together again, okay? And you have observed this your whole professional life, okay? And right now, and it was especially visible, it emerged in the time of Trump, let his name be erased. And you saw the social fabric tearing being fragmented.   And I'm asking you about the dynamic of our country and our community here in Hawaii. It seems to me that we are on a trend while we're boiling in the water, we're on a trend where the social fabric is being torn. People don't get along the same way they did. They're not tolerant, they're not willing to accept the predicament of the other guy. They're not willing to negotiate. They find political divisiveness in everything. Do you see that in your mediation, your peacemaking? I do see that. And my limitation is I can only work with groups or people at the moment that they are ready to negotiate. And if everybody is absolutely convinced that their strategy is perfect and they're happy with the way a conflict is unfolding, I'm not that helpful. I can't be that helpful. So a lot of the heart blood of what I do is involved in negotiation, communication, right kind of convening at the right time in the right way with the right people. And if people aren't ready to negotiate, with the right people, and if people aren't ready to do it, I can't help them. I can't force them to do things they don't wanna do. But people begin to assess risks. We use the word risk, you use that. And people begin to assess the risk and say, how is this gonna come out? What's my upside and downside? Just like lawyers do that in thinking about their cases, what's this gonna turn out to be? What's the best and the worst that can happen? And they do that. And every once in a while, people go bonkers and they make a misreading on it and they get bonged. Sometimes in some of the mediations I've done, walking into a conference room lined with law books, I'll remind people that as the 50% of the people lost. 50% of those people in those law books lost. So we'll talk Turkey today and let's do it with civility. It's very worthy.  But at the same time, deaths are not all that much down. And, you know, who knows where the next variant is coming from? And it's a long-term thing, just like the Black Plague wasn't in the 14th century. You know, there was a 10-year period where everybody was, you know, dying, half of Europe died. But then it kept coming back. And in fact, until they figured out what it was with bacteria and fleas and all that, it kept popping up all over Europe for a long time. So anyway, COVID has been instructive, you'll agree. COVID has changed our lives, not only here, but everywhere in the world. When Joe Biden gets on the phone to talk about, you know, trying to settle things in Ukraine, he's talking to Europe on Zoom or Skype or one of those. And so the whole world is kind of closer together somehow but somehow further apart because you can manipulate your image. You can, you know, do things that are not the same, do not have the same genuine quality or authenticity that a personal contact in the same room would give you. And so Zoom has changed us, virtual connections have changed us. And I wonder your thoughts about that because on the one hand you say, well, I can talk to somebody in Bangladesh today, no problem, and it isn't, it's no problem. And I wouldn't have the chance to do that. So I'm connecting all around the world, but at the same time, it's not personal. And so if you're trying to make peace, for example, in a given matter of mediation, can you get the same result? Can you get the same emotional investment? Can you get the same emotional transparency that you would have in person? How is this working for you? How is it working for us? How is it working for our future? Well, a lot of the work that I've been doing on these mediations and bringing people together for difficult discussions and trying to solve problems, for the last couple of years it has been on Zoom. And I'm glad that Zoom is there and we still are able to utilize it to try our best. I recently had a labor management matter that came my way, oddly, that's not the area that I do most of my work in, but I was approached and we actually had some face-to-face meetings in a meeting room in a conference room downtown. And it was stunning to me what a change it was to be in the room. And people had to kind of cough some bones out of their throat, both on both sides. And they did that, we did that. And then we could settle down and start to work on, well, how are we gonna craft the future for you guys? Use labor union and your company counterparts. And it made so much difference being in the same room, having, breaking bread together, bringing donuts and, you know, malasadas and drinking coffee and we were all masked up and sitting separately and all that, but it was kinetic. There was something kinetic about that that was so refreshing. And I kind of think it really helped at this moment where people were at a bit of a standstill and impasse. So, you know, we're gonna keep doing a lot more on Zoom, but we will also, for certain things, try to get people in the room together, COVID permitting, COVID permitting. I think the world has changed. I think the way we deal with each other is different, but there's something about getting together and sitting around that kitchen table or that conference table and really trying to talk to each other as humans and not as electrons. There's something about that that I don't think we will get away from. I just, I think we're gonna always be wanting that. And a part of a lot of us is hungry for it. We're hungry for those kind of interpersonal reactions. I like coming up and visiting with you and having a coffee. I like that much better than I like talking on Zoom, but this is bad. So I think- But Zoom enables us to talk. Zoom enables me to have a very, you know, you can say this is a public conversation, but it's also very personal, very private. It's you and me. It's what it is. That's because you're skilled at this. You're so skilled at getting people like me to yakity yak and talk story. So, but you're right. I mean, it's not gonna help with trying to connect with the Sri Lankan or the Bangladeshi. Those are gonna require long distance communication. So we're in an interesting new hybrid world on this stuff. And I think we'll keep learning about how to use it to a maximum ability and maximum efficiency and a maximum utility. Let's assume that for a minute. Let's assume that we find that Zoom has changed our lives. So we like Zoom. You don't have to drive or park. You don't have to fly anywhere.  And this is, you know, and for Think Tech, this has been a tremendously lucky break because we were ready for it. We already were using Zoom. But here's this though. You talk in your book and you talk in this show about people in the next civil war, about the stresses and strains of a social fabric which is torn or at least tearing. And I give you now a country of 330 million or a world of 7 billion where X% of the human communications are conducted or will be conducted electronically, not in person. Does that bring us closer to the disruption you're worried about, to the civil war you're worried about or further away? Yeah, I worry about some of that because we have this explosion of social media that is sort of out of control and can be used by anybody for anything, promulgating anything. And that's part of what's creating this white noise out there which makes it so hard to reach out and create the right discussions and read the right symbols signals into the white noise. And that's part of the challenge here is what are the signals telling us as we see Twitter and Instagram and all the different social media channels which can be used for good or bad purposes. We know that, we know that. But there is something about, I'm finding at the right time and in the right moment in the right way, getting people together to look each other in the eye and begin to fashion solutions. There's something, now it's rare it's not gonna be the prevalent thing but that's what we do. We get people together, have these hard discussions and try and find solutions, partial solutions, fulsome solutions. We're gonna keep doing that. There's always gonna be people who want to try to find a way forward. I stay optimistic about that. I'm very optimistic.  Last question. As a professional in mediation, arbitration, resolving disputes, finding, may I use the word truth, you have to be very, very concerned about truth. And there's a lot of untruth out there. We have seen it up close. I can turn my television on. You know, I have a thing about Fox News. I will watch Fox News until the first lie and then I turn off Fox News. I have never been able to get past about 10 seconds. There's just me. So the question is this. We talk about critical thinking. Everybody talks about critical thinking. Critical, I mean, they use it loosely in critical race theory, but critical thinking is what you're talking about. And maybe critical thinking is the difference between being in an electronic environment than being in a personal environment where you can see this, the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the ground and all that. So what is critical thinking? I'm asking you to leave a message from your experience, your speculative novel and your life experience in general. You know, what is critical thinking? Talk to the kids out there for a moment, Peter. Tell them what it really is. Well, you're asking me a hard question at the end of this conversation, my goodness. I actually do, I like critical thinking, which means examining assumptions and applying some systematic rigor, asking people for what is the evidence that we can put on the table and weigh on particular things. So I like using that. But, you know, I think the world is not made of truth or data, it's made of stories. And part of what I and my colleagues do, we do something that has an old Latin name and so it goes back into Blackstone's law and it's called tertium quid. And it's about trying to hear one story, hear the other story and then get everybody to fashion the new story going forward. I believe the world is made of our stories. The law is a story. Philosophy is a story. Science is a story. And critical thinking can apply in all of those. But at the end of the day, it's really getting people to say, what's our next chapter? And can we begin to agree on that? Can we get some foresight and some imagination and some strategy? So critical thinking, wonderful stuff. And it's a means to other ends. It's not an end by itself. I knew I'd get a fabulous answer on that question. You ask hard questions. I tell you that's my love. Peter Adler, a mediator, a truth teller, a peacemaker, and a member of our board. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's been wonderful to talk to other folks and see you again soon. Thanks, Dayaloha. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


And here we go. OK, here's my script. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain positions of the open meeting law, General Law Chapter 30A, Section 18, this meeting of the Resident Advisory Committee is being conducted via remote participation. We're going to do a roll call to check and make sure everybody's video and audio is working. So we'll start with Keisha to say something and wave to us. Oh, happy new year. Good. And Nicola. Hi. And Angela. Yes, I am present. Good. And I assume you can all hear me and see me. And just another reminder that we're being recorded to the web. It may be shown on Amherst Media or broadcast on the town of Amherst YouTube channel. And the meeting is now called to order. Did you want to do a sound check for Paul? I was here. Oh, look, who's there? Paul's here. And his sound is working. So I guess we've done a sound check for Paul. Thank you. OK. If there is anybody dialing in by phone, you can press star nine to raise your hand to speak. And let's say, if you want, I mean, with this small group, we don't always do it. But if you want, you can mute to cut down on background noise, unless you're talking on mute when you've been called on or you raise a hand. OK. So this meeting is called to order introduction. Since we have a new member, we'll go around and do introductions and say what our role is here. So I am Jim Pistrang, and I am currently the chair of the residence advisory committee. Keisha, you can go next. I'm Keisha Dennis, just a member. And Nicola, am I pronouncing it right, Nicola? You are. Yes, I'm Nicola Usher. I am a new member of the committee.  You're still muted. Sorry, I am Angela. I am your staff liaison. I'm one of your community participation officers and Paul's executive assistant. And I'm doing minutes for this meeting. And I do some of the updates to the website and set up all of the interviews for new board committee commission working group members. Thanks, everyone, for your time and your effort. And last but not least, Paul. Unmute. I'm Paul, I'm town manager. OK. So again, welcome to Nicola. Very exciting to have a new member. We've never had a new member before. So this is very exciting. What I put next on the agenda is review our best practices. And what I thought I'd do is I'd go first and then I'd put Keisha on the spot after me and then see if Angela and Paul have anything to add. And I'm just going to talk very quickly about what I do preparing for a meeting and preparing for the committee. So just jump in real quick. I should have mentioned this earlier. So I need to jump off at 1130. So just so you're aware of, I'm not sure how long your meeting's going to go. I'm hoping we'll be done by then, we'll see. So when I've got interviews scheduled, basically I review the community activity forums, the CAFs that I get. I just, you know, not memorize them, but just see who's there and what their interests are. I also go to whichever committee I'm interviewing for. I go to their web page on the town website and I look and see what their charge is. And I look at the list of members. Occasionally I'll look at an agenda to if I really have no clue what the committee does, but I don't usually even do that. And then once we get to the interview, we prepared a script. Where's my printout of it? Which Angela has put on the packet for this meeting. Basically it's a script. The subject is recommended script for town council appointees to the board committee. And it's kind of a script of everything that needs to be touched on in our 15 minute interviews. So you can look at that or print to whatever you want from the most recent packet from our web page. And I kind of use it as a checklist. We don't exactly follow it. Sometimes the things that we say the town manager does, somebody else does. Sometimes the thing that the RAC member does, somebody else does. But it's kind of a checklist of all the important things that should be covered in the course of the interview. And at the end, I see it as my responsibility. So let's say Paul forgets to let the interviewee know what the timeline is. I'll say, Hey Paul, what's the timeline for them knowing something like that? Just to make sure everything gets checked off. And my understanding is that chairs of committees all have received this script as well. So they have a general idea of what's gonna be covered Angela's making a face. Maybe they've received them. Maybe they look at them. And some chairs are very prepared and they really have it down to give the sort of five minutes summary of everything that the committee does. Some chairs are a little less prepared, but I see our job not to interrupt in the middle, but just sort of check off. And at the end, if there's anything important that was missed just to ask a question to make sure it comes up. And that's kind of what I've got. I would say for me, I do some of the same things, look what the charge is so that we know, you know, kind of what we're looking for come up with a couple of questions. You know, that I'd like to add in case they're not already asked by usually the chair of the committee, you know, just to kind of get as much information from the candidate as possible about to, you know, why they're interested and what ideas they have that they'll bring to the committee. Good, thanks. Angela, anything to add to that? No, I think you covered it. I think there's some extenuating circumstances sometimes. Nicola, where we have people in the community who really want to get involved. And so part of the interview process at the beginning is you have people who send in a CAF and they've listed every single board committee commissioner working group. And our job is to kind of help focus them and say it's great that you want to volunteer. It's great that sometimes they're new to town and they are so eager. And so our job is really to try and ferret out where best to place them or where we can, like Keisha said, put their talents to the best use. And Angela does a lot of that sort of one-on-one when someone submits something. And, you know, we try to give anybody who's expressed an interest in a committee, but when we do get the checked all the boxes, people we'd really like, are you really, are you more in the housing world or the environmental world? Where do you want to go? And then she's really good at helping to guide people and also recruit people to pitch some committees that they might not have thought of knowing who the people are. So there is a lot of sort of counseling like that that goes along because we're desperate to have people involved and we're happy to. And so we want to make sure the experience of being involved is really positive. Nicola, any thoughts, comments on everything you just heard? No, that all sounds good. Okay. In that case, I'm checking it off the agenda. The next thing I have, and we do this, so our committee meetings are sometimes frequent, sometimes infrequent. And in fact, this time we haven't met since June of 2021. So one thing we do at each of our meetings is we do a quick review one by one of the interviews that we've been involved in since the last meeting. So I'll go first thing in there. And what I do personally is I keep a list on a spreadsheet because otherwise I'll never remember. I look today and I said, oh, I don't remember those interviews, but I know I did them because they're on my spreadsheet. So what I've done, I didn't, I wasn't involved in anything over the summer, but back in September, there was a big burst and I was involved in three interviews for the cultural council, four interviews for the Board of Health and two interviews for ECAC. Okay, which is an acronym for SNAP Quiz. Paul, what's ECAC? Is that the environmental one? Yeah, Energy and Climate Action Committee. There we go. I knew that, I was just testing Paul. And then in November, I did three interviews for our committee and one interview for the Council on Agents. Kisha, your turn. So I couldn't find the notebook that I usually keep all my notes in, but I did the African Heritage Reparations Assembly. I think it was like 12 to 15 interviews for that. And then I did the Recreation Director and I think it was about 10 candidates for that as well and then one for the Council on Aging. Cool. So the next thing we usually do is Angela gives us, hang on, let me look at the agenda and follow it. Yeah, upcoming interviews. What's in store for us? What are you looking at? I'm turning this responsibility over to Paul today. So there's a lot coming up. So there are two, so we have, the immediate group is, and correct me if I miss any, Jones Library has a one community member seat that's available. The Elementary School Building Committee has one community seat that's available and those are high priority ones because those committees are actively working right now. And I'm sorry, just to interrupt, what's the Jones Library Building Committee? Jones Library Building Committee, yeah. Shade tree, cac, and then down the road, then we've had some resignations because of counselors being elected from Conservation Commission and Community Preservation Act Commission. I think we might have some vacancies on the Council on Aging Design Review Board, Energy and Climate Action Committee, again, because of counselor change over Recreation Commission, our new Recreation Director is sort of looking at recruiting some folks to be on there that he knows. We have two, and others that we are establishing the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee. And I have asked on that one to, because it's a brand new committee, we reached out to the group that's been really successful in the past, that's Barbara Love, Sid Ferrara, and Keisha to interview these groups of people. And we, I think we sent out, or we will be sending out soon, the community activity forms for those to see if the pool is sufficient for the group to start the interviews. And the same with the, we have a one seat available due to a resignation on the African Heritage Reparation Assembly. And then in the near future, we'll be looking at the police resident, the police resident oversight board and getting enough people to serve on that as well. So there's lots of new committees out there. And so we are making more of an effort to reach out and connect with folks. And just to clarify, this doesn't include normal term explorations of current committees. That's right. All the terms expired June 30th and these are all the vacancies right now. Wow. Yeah. So we'll be calling on you periodically. And a lot of them are onesies and twosies. So it's like, it might just be a couple, like the shade tree, Angela, two people that we need to interview. And the Jones Library, I think there's gonna be a fair number of people interested in that. So. I had a question and it just popped on. Oh yeah. What's the status of Zoom interviews? I assume they're continuing for the short term at least. Yeah. So all of our meetings like this are continuing, we're allowed to continue meeting, public meetings like this until April one under the state legislation. They are looking at extending that. The council itself is meeting in person. If they want to, it's a hybrid meeting. It takes a lot of support for us to do a hybrid meeting. So we've offered that to the council, but to no other committees. They are gonna reconsider that at their meeting on the 24th, a lot of their members feel like they really don't wanna be coming into a building together for multiple hours with each other. So, and I, you know, honestly, I'm not sure what we'll do going forward because the Zoom is really convenient for folks. You know, it used to be we had to, you know, people had to get down to town hall for a 15 minute interview. We always felt bad about it. I mean, I missed the personal interaction, but I mean, with these interviews, we can choose what we want and I'd welcome what your thoughts are on that. Anybody have thoughts on that? Zoom versus in person for our 15 minute interviews? I mean, I personally think it makes it a little bit more accessible in certain ways for people. You know, maybe not having to have childcare or, you know, in the light, but I also know that for some people, they may not have access or feel comfortable, but I think overall, it might widen the pool of applicants we have. Nicola? Yeah, I agree with that. I think especially for a 15 minute interview, I have a question if we, for somebody for whom Zoom might not be accessible, could we do phone interviews? Yeah, so I mean, I just, I would say, you know, in terms of best practices, my experience with other organizations, it's just important to provide sort of the same, the same to everybody, you know, so we should be doing Zoom for everybody then or Zoom or phone for everybody or the same options, I guess, consistently. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say you guys mostly said everything, I think as well. You know, I'm, what I liked about the 15 minute in person is it was in person. And I think for the people coming for interviews, you know, it's, it feels more important or like you're wanted in a way when you're, you know, going into this big building that you maybe have never been in before and going into the, you know, cool town manager's office and things like that. And I missed that. But on the other hand, you know, I'm still working and to be able to just stop for 15 minutes or half hour, 45, whatever it is and do my interviews and not have to go into town and back is great. So I'm with everybody else, I guess. You know, there's one thing I wanted to mention that's not on the agenda, but I'm allowed to mention it. We have a funny committee in that there's only three of us on it, which means anytime if two of us talk together, not an official meeting about how the committee works or what it does, we're violating open meeting law. So we have a funny thing where, you know, most committees where you have nine people, two of them can, you know, meet for coffee and talk about how their committee is doing and stuff like that. But we can't do that. We can, we can share information like one person can send another person a spreadsheet that we talked about at the last meeting or the agenda or something like that. But we can't talk about the workings of the committee one-on-one because one-on-one means a majority, means you need to have an open meeting. So it's just something, it doesn't really come up. The one peculiar, when did it come up? There was something where? When you were hiring the interviewing for the resident advisory committee. Yeah. Because we couldn't have two of us. You and Keisha couldn't look at it and say, what do you think? So other than that, it doesn't really come up but it's something to keep in the back of your head. Anything else? Where's my agenda? I lost it. Okay. So anything else on upcoming meetings? I don't think so. So our next job is just one thing. So when we do open up, I mean, I think if we look at elementary school and Jones Library, if you want to designate who's going to be participating in them, that'd be a good thing to come out with. So Angela can or you can just let her know later what you decide. Uh-huh. Which kind of brings up a point. The history of the way this committee works, if any one of us has a particular interest in a committee, you can tell Angela. I know Kana used to do that pretty frequently. So I'm really interested in this committee. Can you have me do the interviews for that? And that's perfectly okay if the timing works. What I've always said is we shouldn't ask Angela to go out of her way in scheduling or rescheduling to meet our needs. So she has enough of a problem meeting the needs of the people that she is getting, signing up for the interviews. But certainly if we have preferences, we can tell Angela or we can just say, sign me up for anything, whatever works for you. Angela will typically send something out saying, we've got these meetings scheduled over the next couple of weeks, who's available? And at that point we tell her what we're available for or not available for. And we also try, like if the interviews get spread out, months in advance because someone resigned early. If we've done the previous set, we try to do the next set, but it's not always workable. So as you know, Nicole, I'm not available in the afternoon. So I tend to do the morning or the evening interviews. So sometimes it's just based on your availability in addition to your interests. Yep, thanks. So the next item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from our previous meeting, which was way back on June 15th. You can look at them online. I don't know if I have a nice copy here. So I looked through them and I personally didn't see anything that I want to change. I don't know if anyone else had a chance to look at the minutes or has anything to note. We're good. Nicola, any comments on the minutes? You weren't there, so you don't know if it's right or not. Yeah, I looked at them, I'll abstain, so I'll be there. So in that case, we will have, basically just do a show of hands. Raise your hand if you approve the minutes from Wednesday, June 16th, 2021. And I see two hands raised, so the minutes are, and Nicola abstained, so the minutes have been approved. At this point, we asked for public comment, but I don't think there is any public, so I think we're good there. Anything else that anybody can think of that we haven't talked about? Any questions, comments, anything? Yeah, Nicola. I have one question just about conflicts of interest. Just, you know, I think this comes up a lot. This comes up for me a lot, even at the Emmer Survival Center. Obviously, it's a small town, people know each other, so are there ever instances where it's not necessarily define a conflict of interest based on state law, but where you have somebody on this committee that has a close relationship with an applicant or something like that? Are there things like that where you try to avoid making recommendations or participating in interviews, or has it just not really come up? For me, the only time it has come up was, there was a panel, you know, I was one member of the panel to interview the candidate, and it was a relative of the person, so they just didn't participate in that interview, but they participated in the other interviews, and then they just didn't comment, you know, when it came time to sort of making our recommendation. And Angela or Paul, any comments on that? Yeah, so, I mean, most of these positions are not compensated, and you're one of a group that's advising the town manager, so there's a couple of steps away from having undue influence, but I think the metric would be, or the thing that you would think about is like, do you think it presents an appearance, or if it's a high profile thing, most of these things are just recruiting and trying to make sure people are aligned, but if it makes you feel, I mean, what our town attorney says, if it makes you feel a little bit queasy inside, then step away, you know? Good. Anything else to talk about? Cool, I like this committee. Me too, very efficient. In that case, I move that we adjourn and raise your hand if you are in favor. And I see three hands raised, so that's unanimous. So we are adjourned. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Bye, have a good weekend. You too. Me too. Bye-bye.


We are coming to you live from my home, Office in Makiki, and from the studios of Think Tech Hawaii, which is located in downtown Honolulu. I would like to share with you that I was so honored to receive the Host of the Year Award for 2020 from Think Tech Hawaii. Mahalo once again to Jay Feidal and Carol for this honor, and much Mahalos to the staff, Eric, Melissa, and Haley, as we couldn't have done it without your professionalism. We are so honored that every week we get to work with you. It's just, it's just a pleasure. Sniff sniff, today is my last show for 2020 and what a year this has been. 2020 has been a year of challenges and new experiences, but with anything new challenges always are good because they bring growth and from growth we grow, is that right? So we all have to teach ourselves always find the positive in whatever we're doing daily. Today, I'd like to welcome a very special friend, a sister in Christ, and a friend to many around the world. Her name is Melvin Lee, and she has a heart to be shared through her gift of music. With all the challenges for many, Melvin has come to our rescue by taking us all away on a musical journey, which she themes weekly. And now till Christmas, she celebrates with us daily at 6pm on Facebook. So tune in if you haven't already. So now I'd like to introduce to you my dearest friend Melvin Lee. Welcome Melvin. Aloha Wendy. Hi everybody. Aloha.  So we've got to stay on track, lots to hear and hear from you and about you. So let's get started. Please share with us a little bit about your ohana, your pride and your joy. You know, I have a wonderful daughter and two grandchildren, and of course, a nice, a beautiful son, a great son-in-law, and they are so talented and many years ago, before I ever even got into this position of having being a parent. You know, I've cared for many, many children, you know, before, and also parented them and learned a lot. So by the time I had my own daughter, I was, it was perfect. Wow. So you went practice on everybody else's kiki, right? So you have perfection at its best, right? So Kalana is very blessed to have you as a mummy. So I also know that you have a soulmate that inspires you daily. Please share a little bit about him. Are you talking about God? Yes, one and foremost, but the one here on earth. Yes, my husband. There you go. Aloha Mike. He's on my picture, and not Mike Lee is. Tell us about your soulmate, tell us a little bit about Mike. He brought me into a different light, and I brought him in another light also. Yes. We both did for each other. We're very good for each other, and we really believe that God brought us together, really. Because I was going on being married anymore, you know, and then he just waltzed into my life, you know, just like a puzzle, everything. Oh, it's unbelievable. Yes, and together you continue to make music. He helps you. He's there to support you. And you love him and you're so made as well. So I see a truly a blessed reunion or a union that God has blessed you both with. So I'm not only do I have you as a dear sister friend, but I also have him as a brother friend too. Wherever there's Melvin, there's Mike. I even got him to pray with me with something before. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm sure he prayed because he prayed and you were the answer and I know that phone. No, take all the credit for that girlfriend.  I also know that you have other artistic talents. Please share with us a little bit about your print work. My print you mean all my artwork. Yes, your artwork. Oh yes, I work when I did it actually with pen and ink before and with lines. Yeah. And it was, I never took lessons or anything but I see it in my mind. And there's one. Yeah, that's one of them. Beautiful. I don't look at any picture to draw something like that. I just, you know, it comes to my mind. And, and I pray when I do these things. Anything I do with my hands. I pray. Right. Well, that's prayer in motion and prayer on print because it's truly beautiful. You know, I've been to many events where you donate some of your prints to the cause and I take the time to look at everything and look at those lines. I know it's like your heart being drawn on paper. That's just how you do that's exactly what you do you when you sing you sing from your heart, you have a voice of your heart, and you share that with the world. And so for that, you know, I'm so blessed we're all so blessed that you don't just contain it you share it, and you will continue to share it as long as God allows this. So we are so blessed until I can sing no more for the world. Well, there you go. And if anyone hasn't noticed yet. I have one of the specials here. You also are an artist. Christmas one.  Yes. I got them all from a Terry Kakazu shop, you know, and I just nice all of that and I said I bought it all and I said, I'm going to she gave it to me actually practically. Wow, hello. Well, has her right has her wine and company. Yes, her wine and company I just love Terry she's a sweetheart talk about. Yes, generous to look at that.  And by the way, and I made about eight, eight scarves already for my friends on the mainland that are freezing. I know, and it's to them, you know, and some of them have very special and royal colors. Is that correct. Right here. Oh, no. This is right here right by my desk I usually have it in the back of my chair but I had to take it down. But this is my royal scarf that Melvin also took the time with every, every little crochet knit stitch. She has put her love in here so I put it close to me right here on my, my bedside. Thank you for that too. Amazing what can't you do Melvin. Yeah, I can't, I can't be Wendy. Easy, easy. Just go drive my knee and you'll be Wendy.  And I think for yourself you know I just thought about it I know you seem to heal others. But I know it's a healing process for yourself. So you know, you knew that your voice is healing and that you could change the course of a day by just singing to all of us, you knew that. So, is that why you started to sing to us weekly, especially on Saturday on Sundays from you started about 11 o'clock and you go till forever. Tell us about that. Yeah, well you know the thing is, not only this I sing for people that can't come to my shows, you know, that's why I opened it up worldwide. Before this, I used to years ago at the Alamona hotel, I had a telephone installed on my stage. In the day I'd call all the different hospitals to see who the terminally ill patients were, and I never met them or anything but I sing to them and have my audience say hello to them. Then next morning I go and visit to see who I was singing to. You know, so that kind of stayed with me. I still do it. I still call people. And if there's somebody I said just tell me who you want me to sing for them. And I do if not I'll just get one of my old friends and I'll just call them and I'll sing to them. If it's their birthday if they're sick and not feeling well to lift up their spirits. That's what God gave his voice for it's a gift.  And I'm going to say make the segue to this. I remember when my husband passed away, and I wanted you I asked you if you could sing canaka bye bye. And you said Wendy of course I would sing that and I said and can you sing this and can you sing that and can you sing that. And you said, Hey Wendy, this funeral not concert. That was the greatest thing you could tell me, like, get a grip girl, get a grip, you know, okay. So honor you honor your husband with canaka bye bye. And that was exactly what you did for us and I tell you. Those are, that's just a song that I always need to hear from you. Just the verbiage and coming from your heart put together. You've even got to a point where all these funeral parlors they all know me. And I tell the some of them might say, Hey, you must better get a EPA system. Oh my God, you tell them girl you tell if you want me here. And so I know that you sing every Sunday for all of us and I try to tune in whenever I'm near to my phone or my computer and it just brings it warms my heart. And I see people from all over the world, like you mentioned, but now I know that you are singing to us daily at six. It's pop up many concerts. Yeah, but you know, I know that your heart is to get us through Christmas. Yes, you know, and just to put that Christmas back in because you want to you're touching us with your heart and your music when we can actually physically hug each other. You're hugging us with that music. So I just want to mahalo you for that you get all festively dressed you blinked up you've got the spirit going and then the music comes and it just is a great way to end the day I should say, so we're And I do a different theme every Sunday, you know, to get everybody in the mood yeah. I know and what a theme and and then you ask in advance does anyone have any request that you could sing for them. And I'm like wow and people respond and and yet you got to fulfill all those requests because not just one or two everybody around the world is like hey I want this here I want that. So amazing and you acknowledge them and they feel your love. And you know that's why you know everyone just looks so forward to a daily before it was weekly but now it's daily. So I'm, we're just blessed so thank you so much Melvin for your gift and sharing your gift. So I know. Was it a week or so ago. Your gift the song is not just vocalizing, but I know that Kiko has also given you a gift to receive the word in your dreams or in your daily walk, and he speaks to you. I was so honored when a few Saturdays ago, about 630 in the evening you call me and you said, Oh, I heard the voice the voice gave me the words it was Friday night the night before.  And then it was not even 24 hours later and you're, you've got a song. And my keyboard and my keyboard and I and I recorded it so that I don't forget. Yeah. And how amazing is that and so can you tell us a little bit about it because I actually wanted you to sing it live, but I know the quality was a little bit different than you expect. Sorry, yeah, but this happened before to you know, Wendy, when I several times in my life but but but the other time that I remember is when I had my second heart attack. And that's when I wrote a listen to my voice. Yes, and I recorded that spiritual I wrote several songs you came to mind. I even wrote a song for all the victims of that tsunami that great tsunami was called cries of the sea. Yes. And you remember, I met you and we really had some good time discussing all this at the bar. At Chai's not we wasn't drinking we was joining ours, our thoughts in our hearts and meshing at that time we're bonding. And you wrote the song and in the few days later, you called me and you were at the lobby of the Hilton Hawaiian hotel. And you said you gotta hear this you gotta hear this. And I heard the music from in the car. I don't know if you remember but that was like whoa. And I remember so well because I'm always so honored when you have these, you know, when it comes to your heart and you, you put it to paper and pen and it's just amazing the gift that you have, not only to sing it but to deliver it. And so that it's healthy. It's healthy for you. It really to be able to to exude all these this, you know, this love and this and this thing that you have you cannot keep it in. That's why I always tell the group winners, you know, don't take it to your grade. Younger generation and with everyone. Really. Yes, yes. So, at this time if you want to say anything further otherwise you're going to ask Eric if he can play away and play away and let the world hear your song, The Paris of Hope. No, just go ahead and let them hear what I what God sent to me. During this pandemic time, especially. All right, go ahead Eric.  The part where I say your angels are dreary. You know, are in other words. I'm talking about the first responders. When it comes to that verse. So you'll know what I talked about the. Thank you. There's our of hope. And our hope is through you. A hope of no hunger in us through this time. Angels are restless. They're tired and worn till dawn. These are getting shorter. Words came to you. Tell me how this goes. Yes, it was because I think that when I saw the news that earlier, you know, you sometimes what you do during the day affects you, yeah. And it's with you. And so when I drink, I can't remember what I dreamed. But anyway, but all I know is I heard these words. And I thought, oh my gosh. So when I got up, I wrote it down so that I don't forget. Yeah. And then I next morning, I went straight to my computer. It was like, somebody was just guiding me. I don't know my husband. Usually my husband gets up before me. But I early very extra early, which is something unheard of and put everything on for my keyboard. I said, I better record it. And so I don't forget the tune. And my fingers just went and I just started to sing it. And, and then I then in my regular recording, I put the Lord's prayer in between. Right. It's much prettier with the with the final way. I want to put that out soon. Yeah. I think you're, I think you should put it together and get it out there so the radios can play it, especially right now. I mean, what you're waiting for. It's a breath of hope. I mean, we need that. And especially on these times, you know, where people are a little bit more emotional, because it's Christmas and the holidays are here. And, you know, it's just a time a great time to reflect. And it's a great time to reflect of the past year. And then give us hope for what's to come in 2021, because so many people out there, you know, they just need to hear this. And if it means they're going to cry and shed tears, let us do that because we need to wash away the pain and, you know, the sadness. So it's a cleansing. It's a healing. And that's why I thought it was so very appropriate to have you on my last show for the year, so that you can give us hope. And then the song came and I thought it's okay. Yeah, you know, I always tell everyone they got to move and they have to do something, keep themselves busy when I call some of my friends and they said, I said, What are you doing? Oh, nothing. Well, get doing find a hobby. Do something, you know. Yes, yes, do something for others if you have to. Yes, yes. And just keep busy because, you know, even, even we can be successful at being in isolation. So I'll never say Mahalo to COVID. I'll never say that. But I will say Mahalo to isolation. Because of isolation, it allowed me to find more time to talk to you, Melvin. It found you more time to share your heart with us and sing to us regularly and now daily. And I know that that's your heart and I know you were doing it before, but now it's even more meaningful because we need to hear that. We need to have that hope. We need to be inspired daily. And you know, nice is that when you call someone, they answer the phone because they're home. Yes. Yes. And I love that the best. It's like, you know, if I want to talk to them on zoom or want to meet drop something off, I go, I don't know why I'm going to ask you this but you are your home. And they go, yeah, I said, okay, I'm coming by. Not only can I run away because where are you going? And they always at home. So easy to talk to people. You're absolutely right Melvin. And it's just a blessing. And those are the simple things that we have to realize and appreciate. So yes, Mahalo for keeping us at home and save.  And then you work on everybody else's health by just singing to us. Yes, I know how important that is, you know, and every evening I try to change my songs so that it wouldn't be monotonous, you know. And what's nice about it too is because I heard from people that I haven't heard from for years. I mean they kind of come out of the woodwork. Oh, another thing too is, I can't be in public as much as I used to be for because of my health. You know, I have leukemia. And I'll tell you that I do. And with I'm very high risk. I cannot be, you know, and my husband had surgery recently on cancer surgery. And so we can't be in the midst of anybody, you know, so. Right. And that's, you know, we're kind of used to it.  I know. I love it. Yeah, I know you do. I know you have a, you've created a castle and you and your mic.  But your castle, your home is your castle, and you stay and you appreciate it. And then you've done that, like you said, even before this all came about since, you know, the beginning of the year. So it was in preparation for just a time like this. Thank God for Amazon and I did my Christmas shopping on Amazon. Yeah, and so, you know, you go out maybe you sneak out once in a great while to go get some supplies and some food. But other than that, you are homebound and safe.  Every morning you take a breath you say, thank you, God. Thank you. What do I do for you today? You know, that's how my day starts. And that's a blessing. So everyone listening, just listen to Melvin as she sings her love songs, her spirited songs, her Hawaiian songs, her melees, all different genres of music. Her love is coming to you for healing. And as she's helping us to heal, she herself is healing herself. And so that's the beauty of what this is all about. Everyone working together, bringing aloha to each other, long distance through the Facebook or whatever it means of communication we have. But the main thing is that our aloha for each other continues. And I know you have brought sunshine to my life.   I know us guys, twins look, we even get the kind of things. And we don't go from emplacement, you're from Molokai or from Miley. And you and I are both, we cannot stand boredom. Yeah, I know. That's why, you know what?  Because we can go hours on the phone, just go... Yeah, we just bust out now. You think we retired or something. But we're just making the best of everything we have. And it's the love and friendship that we share.  So just remember that. You're making me hear you know right now. Yeah, I'm so blessed. We're so blessed. So at this time I know Melvyn, you and I want to wish everybody a merry, merry Christmas. God bless the world. God bless the world and happy birthday Jesus. Yes, happy birthday Jesus and stay healthy and practice social distancing, wash your hands and wipe everything down, you know? Yes. Thank you, Wendy.  Mahalo Mike for sharing though. Thank you, Eric. Mahalo Think Tech and let's bring on 2021 and make it as good as this one just was. Program next year? Yes. Good again, girl. We'll do it again, all right? So, aloha everybody. Mahalo. Mahalo. Merry Christmas.


What's up, world? It's your boy H.E.L.L. and it's Yard Top 101. First of all, it's the news, events, and the overall school of Yard, all right? And I'm in the Elizabeth City State University, all right? It's called the Vikings. It's Vikings Fests, all right? Hey, but without further ado, we're going to bless you, find out all about what your school got, all right? So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show because it's Yard Top 101. What's up, Yard Top viewers? I'm here with Ms. Alana Johnson, the student government association president here at the Elizabeth City State University. Alana, first and foremost, it's campaign season right now. Yes. How does that feel that you were in these shoes last year? Well, firstly, it's good to sit back and watch and see what the new people can bring to the table. Second, it's a release that you have got your turn behind you and you're moving on and you left a great impact on your kids. I love these shoes because they believe in me. I came here, I'm the first student, well, first person to go to college from my family, and I didn't have that guidance. My parents were able to tell me, okay, this is what you gotta be to make sure that you get through college and stuff like that. So when I came here, I automatically knew that this campus was family-oriented and I needed that guidance and support. That's one thing. Another reason why I came to ECS shoes because we have so many clubs and organizations on campus, it allowed me to cultivate in my talents and I was very shy when I came here, but now I'm the best, so that's another thing and the teachers, they care for you. And I think that is one of the most important aspects of choosing a university because they don't believe in you who will. What's up, yard talk viewers? I have the pleasure, the honor, to be here with the chancellor of the university, Chancellor Conway. Chancellor, first and foremost, I want to say thank you for being on the show. It's a pleasure to have you. Glad to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the work you're doing. I try. You know I try. Chancellor, Elizabeth City State University. Yes. Why is this university so special? Well, right now is a really special time at this place. It's a historical time for the university. We've got programs growing like our aviation science program. We've got one of the few programs between the extreme northeast and South Florida or Daytona Beach, Florida, where you can come and you can get your bachelor's degree in aviation science and earn a pilot's license in the process of doing that. Wow. We've got that program has gone global. That program, the faculty in that program are working with scientists in and department of state, U.S. Department of State and the Kenyan authorities to develop technology that's using lightweight easily fixable aircraft to help patrol the game reserves there to limit the poaching that's going on. So those game reserves are available to future generations. So we're going global in that concept. It's a great time. We've got a project going in Antarctica. We've got our students actually doing internships, doing global sensing, measuring the melting of the ice caps in Antarctica and traveling there. So it's a great place to be. Wow. So students are global? Absolutely. That's the world that you're going to live in. That's the world you're going to work in and you've got to be ready for it. That's definitely amazing.  Well, it's a great feeling. The people at Elizabeth City State University are the are what make it special. This is a student body and an alumni body that are loyal to the university. They have a can do at at attitude about getting things done and they believe in their university. And this is one of the things that keeps me hyped every day. I can only imagine. I mean, especially when the Mariles of the campus is up and students want to continue to be great, it can only make you want to just keep coming back every day. Every day is a good day for me. Now, what's next for Elizabeth State? Well, we're going to continue to grow. Obviously, we've got to work on our enrollment. We want to get people excited about being here so that the student body comes. It has to get larger. It's one of those things that the more people that we can attract to us right now, the better the educational environment is going to become. We're here at Elizabeth City State University. We are one of the 16 institutions of higher education within the UNC school system or the UNC College System of North Carolina. Admissions requirements are as follows for high school students entering as freshmen is a minimum of a 2.5 GPA or from your high school transcript. SAT will look at at least an 800 off your math and verbal or a composite score of a 17 on your ACT. Benefit is looking for scholarships. I encourage you to check out our website as we offer various scholarships, some need-based, some merit-based. Some are going to be more so based on how high your GPA or how high your ACT or SAT scores may be. But more information about that you can find on our financial aid webpage at www.ecsu.edu. I think Elizabeth City State prepared me extremely well. It was a small family here. And I think that's what I needed at the time. I originally came on an athletic scholarship to play football, but found education and was my niche. And I think the professors here prepared me well. It was like a family. What's up yard talk? I'm here with SAT, also known as the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, all right, where they're basically the voice of the student athletes here at Elizabeth City. Lauren, that bone marrow drive, explain it to the world what's going on. Okay, blood cancer is the third leading cause of all deaths in the United States and it also kills more children than any other disease. A bone marrow transplant transplant can help with leukemia and 70 other different diseases. And today, we're just swabbing cheeks to see if you are a candidate. So if you are fit for like a kid, they'll send your bone marrow to that person and they'll transplant it to them. Okay, okay. So it sounds like SAC is out here in the community trying to make a difference not only for the student athletes on campus, but possibly for student athletes that could be in the community and just people in general. As you can see, I got fishing rods around me. You know why? Because I'm here with the fishing team. Yes, I said fishing team and yes, they do actually fish, okay. We thought about ways why we can implement the students in different ways than joining other than joining fraternity and sorority. Have you caught any fish? I think the most important thing that I did learn at Elizabeth City State was the aspect of actually teaching us how to fight for what we want. Nothing was given to you. Even if they thought that you were good enough, they pushed you to the limit that you didn't even know existed inside of yourself. You guys do your body, student body, meaning it's totally different. Something I've never seen before. It's just a way for the students to unwind and come together once a month to showcase their talents and get out information about their clubs and organizations because we're very involved in this. So Michelle, it's Viking Fest and this is right now is where Viking pride is at an all-time high. How does it feel right now to be a Viking? It actually feels awesome, right? And it's my senior year. I feel so glad to be a Viking right now. At first I was kind of nervous because I wasn't used to being away from home but as the year went on I kind of enjoyed it and it was great. I loved it. Roots are the good brus. All right look, it's yard talk, it's the brus and we have more of the ECSU. All right, so sits on it. All right, we got more. My experience in college and here at ECSU has prepared me because it taught discipline and discipline was a key part of what I what I do now.  My networking ability has really taken me to another level in what I do now and all that came from my my training here at ECSU. Would I send my child here? Absolutely, I would. I honestly would because I know one thing is going to take place. They're going to get a chance to develop. I tell people greatness is a process. The key with the process is that you have to have the right environment. Nothing great can be accomplished unless you have the right people around to nurture that greatness. I wear everything that I am and everything that I have to my education here at Elizabeth City State University. And there you have it, the Elizabeth City State University home of the Vikings. All right, we've been able to give you a true inside scoop of the yard. Everything from a town hall meeting to the fishing team and we even had a special guest, the chancellor of the university. Until next time, it's your boy, Jelil, and it's Yard Talk 101. Your source for news, events, and the overall scoop of the yard. All right, and remember, chase your dreams or watch someone else live them. Peace.


Well, our only goal is to be the best version of ourselves every single day individually and bring that together and work as a unit and outside noise from people who are hoping that we fail, hoping that they see a show or get entertained by some drama.  So we just worried about who we are individually and then bringing that together as a unit each and every day. Only the people in this building matter.


Hi everyone, Joe for jasmiescasebreaks.com with a fun one here, some 2023 Panini, the national VIP goldpacks, 10 packs. Random letter break number 7 and going by the first letter of their first name. Pretty easy. There's some combo letters right there and there's one spot that's kind of a catch-all. So pretty good stuff here. Big thanks to this group for making it happen. There are the letters right there. Let's do it. Let's roll it. Two letters, two and a four, six times each, one, two, three, four, five and six. Got Josh down to Josh. I did load up another 10 pack break, Liz, check it out, jasmiescasebreaks.com, two and a four, six times four, the letters, one, two, three, four, five and six. We got T down to the QO and all other letters, spot. All right, so Josh with the letter T, remember first letter of their first names, Gary with S, Dominic with H, Michael with B, Josh with G, Kanard with M, Josh with L, Gervan with D, Josh with P, Gary with W, Eric with A, Anthony with J, Brett with N, Eugene with R, Josh with the E plus F plus U combo spot as well as K with last spot, Mojo, Eric with C and Josh with QO and all other letters. So let's sort by A to Z and we will pause the video just for a little bit and when we come back we'll have this 10 pack break right here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. So stick around, BRB. All right, welcome back everybody. No deals were done so that list you saw is now officially printed out and remains the same break number seven. The next 10 pack break is in the store right now. So check that out, jaskyscasebreaks.com. This is a fun one, it's a multi-sport break so let's see what we got. Usually there's one non-numbered card and then a numbered card. There's KJ Evans, letter K for Josh and then the numbered card is Arch Manning, nice, rated prospect, pink cracked ice. That's Eric with the letter A, there you go Eric Wolverton, 12 out of 75, might be kind of crazy when he eventually gets the NFL. We got Kevin Durant, Sun struggling a little bit this season and then we have purple cracked ice, 44 out of 50, purple ice, Emmett Smith, letter E, Josh with the letter E, Troy Aigman and we have Henden Hooker, nice. That'll be for H, Dominic with that one, this might 43 out of 149, might take over, he's going to marinate behind Jared Goff a little bit and maybe he takes over that starting job someday. I'm going to hide the parallel first, there's Lamar Jackson, great season for him and the Ravens and we've got KJ Evans, rated prospect, numbered this time for Josh and the letter K. There are autographed possibilities here too, are there relic possibilities, there must be relic possibilities as well, 6 out of 75, few and far between though on those autos obviously. I think they can exist, there's Haley Deegan, letter H, Dominic and we got James Harden, 6ers edition here, 23 out of 75, that's Anthony, the letter J, there's a Quinn Ewers, rated prospect and we have another Henden Hooker, Dominic, letter H, yeah I have a feeling that they probably will, depending on Henden Hooker's progress I guess, 37 out of 149, they may just let Jared Goff's contract run its course maybe, depending on how he's playing. I think we've got an extra card in here, there's a Yanisante de Campo, yeah we've got a few extra cards in here, look at that, a little thicker pack, alright so the first one on top is Greg Maddox, then we've got a Shaquille O'Neal, 45 out of 149, Leica's edition, that looks nice, it's going to go to letter S, that'll be for Gary and here's a nice one for the letter J, Anthony, Jameer Gibbs, we'll be able to see him in playoff action, it's green ice to 99, there could be some nice value on that if the Lions advance in the playoffs, Jackson Smith and Jigba and we've got a Joe DiMaggio, ice, Joe DiMaggio ice for Anthony and the letter J, very cool, 35 out of 75, you've got the national right there, VIP stuff, so that's how you know, alright two more left, we've got a, wow, Mattis Bezellis, one of one, letter M, that's for Canard Bolt, I don't think he was drafted this year right, or was he, no I don't think he's officially been drafted, he is with the Ignite, but he grew up in Chicago, this guy's supposed to be really good, Consensus five star recruit and one of the top players in the 2023 class, yeah, Lithuanian American, place for the Ignite in the G League, but as he signed in May of 2023 so he's not been officially drafted so I think he's going to be part of the NBA draft this year I think, nice one for the letter N, Bolt, all aboard the Big Hit Express, almost forgot Dirk Nowitzki, 45 out of 50, so two numbered cards in there, Gervan with the letter D, 45 out of 50, alright, last pack, there's Shaq again and we have, nice Jackson Smith and Jigba, letter J, Anthony with the letter J gets the red ice, that is 196 out of 199, there you go gang, some nice stuff popping out of here, I got another 10 packs in the store right now, jaspyscasebreaks.com, autograph possibilities, one of one possibilities, train whistle opportunities, multi sport, a lot of fun stuff in there, so check it out, I'm Joe, I'll see you next time for the next one, bye bye