Good afternoon everyone. Hey, this is Andrew Champagne. I'm a member of the Democratic State Committee and also involved in Democratic State politics in Burlington and Chittenden County and in Vermont. So we have our monthly episode issue episode, I guess of Democrats Live at 525. We're running just a couple minutes late. I apologize for that. I would like to thank my producer, Jordan. Thank you so much. I appreciate you and also Megan who's not here today, a great friend of the program, and also by special request my co-producer here, Daniel, and I'd like to thank him. He's going to be doing the cameras. He runs the monitor and he also runs the He runs the order of the appearance. So Daniel, thank you so much. I'm glad to have you here I'm glad to see Jordan here These folks at channel 17 could not be kinder and you know, we have a blast doing the show. So I got a lot to announce. Okay, so I'm on camera too here. That was a quick change. All right I must start the show like I've got to start every show We've got to talk about COVID. We've I'm reaching out to anyone here who has not been vaccinated We see that the numbers are spiking in Burlington and Chintenden County and we need We need to get everyone vaccinated. Okay If you're not vaccinated, there are so many different ways that you can you can figure that out I just got some stuff actually from the speaker of the house Jill Kowinsky about about COVID and also about representative Kurt McCormick And here's do you have COVID-19 questions call the health department at 802 863 724 or send the health department an email at ahs.vd HP public communications at vermont.gov. I'm going to have to repeat that maybe a couple times First of all, let's do the phone number 802 863 724 and then it's kind of a long email ahs dot vd HP At public communications at vermont.gov and vermont.gov. Um, also if you are interested in in Assessing any state resources or services You can call 211 And you can also text them too if you have any questions. So 211 that's kind of a state hotline to to help and I must say as a small state we we have a lot of people here or glad to help you and So if you have any COVID questions 863 724 or Or quickly send an email to ahs vdp Vdp. I'm sorry via ahs vdh public communications at government at vermont.gov. I'm sorry. That's a little complicated I'm going to do it one more time. I apologize to my producer here ahs ahs dot vdp h public communication At vermont.gov Again on the phone 863 724 o Because If if we cannot get close to 100 vaccination, we're not going to be able to move forward as a society or as a world We're going to be caught in this COVID stuff for years and years and uh It it really as we've seen we're almost entering our second year of it now.  So I ask anybody here who's not been vaccinated to strongly consider it The vaccinations, they're not painful at all Sure, there might be a little tired. There might be a little bit of side effect, but it's worth it I had very little side effects. I'm also next month I'll be able to get my booster and I will be doing that in the first day that I can so Anyone here who has not gotten the the uh, coronavirus The vaccine please Please please if you have any questions you can call me at home 802 540 717 if I know sometimes it's like going to the dentist or going to the doctor. It makes you nervous.  So if you haven't been vaccinated Please consider getting vaccinated and we all know some people that haven't been vaccinated and I'm I have a good friend of mine and unfortunately He chooses not to get vaccinated and it's it's very disconcerting And I ask him and I ask everyone to try to try to take Take the long view and sometimes you have to do what's right for your country and for the world And if we can't get close to everyone vaccinated, we're not going to be able to be able to get beyond this Okay, moving on to better stuff last thing also If you're looking for some help on services and also covet questions Besides calling the 863 7240 you can just you can you can call 21 211 Which is kind of a vermont state number. Okay, that's good Now moving on we've got a great announcement today We have a candidate for city council in ward eight that declared today Her name is miss hannah king. She is a senior at uvm She's a political science major Um, she's a she's an old friend of mine. She's worked on campaigns and she was a freshman She's been very involved in in city politics and city policy She's focused on a lot of different issues. For example public safety transportation issues Trying to bring down our our carbon our carbon footprint I think she's going to be a very strong candidate. Her name is hannah king She lives on bradley street and uh, you will see her because she is going to she is going to She is going to mount a very strong campaign. She's going to take it. She's going to take it to the voters You will see hannah hannah will also be at the polls all day on december 7th at ward eight, which That polling place is for Fletcher free library You know, I might as well go over all the polling places. Why why i'm we're talking about ward eight Okay, ward one is modern christie school Ward two is h.o. Wheeler school ward three is barn school or sustainability academy Ward four is st. Mark's church ward five is um Is the highest the uh, old junior high on main street and edmunds Ward six is burlington electric and ward seven is the senior center In the new and the new north end so we and ward eight as I said is um That is um at the public library Excuse me. Just got a little water here We have an election coming up, but not where we're going to have any candidates It's where we have two bond issues to talk about and I have the wording on both and I'd like to take the time To read both so you can kind of soak it in Um As of now most of you the vast majority of you should have gotten your ballot sent to you in the mail If you did not receive your ballot Please give city hall a call. You can call them eight six five seven thousand and just press one to reach them Or you can email city hall or you can stop in they're open eight to four thirty every day monday through friday Um They close 12 30 to 130 for lunch and also covet cleanup, but they cannot be nicer like to say hello I always say hello to them my friends at city hall Amy bow v Catherine Susan lorry tensin fill up holly Hope i'm not forgetting anyone um But they do wonderful work and as a justice of the peace I I work with them frequently and um And they're the people you go to if you want to register to vote or You want to get a wedding license or play your property tax or get a dog license or just have a question About your your birth certificate Anything like that and and they do it so well and we have you know in the vault we have stuff from almost 200 years ago about Um that has stayed there. So it's very interesting. Okay, so there is a special election on Tuesday december 7th easy day to remember pearl harbour day Um and I'm going to read both questions for you now there are no There are no candidates on the ballot. It is just these two ballot questions So I'd like to read these for you if I could please um number one Shall the city council quote be authorized to issue general obligation bonds or notes in one or more series an aggregate principal amount Not to exceed 40 million dollars To be borrowed in increments from fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2025 between i'm sorry between fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2025 For the purpose of funding capital improvements infrastructure projects for the city and departments and furtherance of the city's 10-year capital plan So basically what the city is looking here is a bond to borrow money to do some improvements Again, I'll just say it really fast shall the city council be authorized to to issue general obligation bonds or notes In a series not to exceed 40 million dollars in to be borrowed in increments between fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2025 So that's a three-year that's a three-year window and with interest rates so low I I think this is a good investment and I I've already voted but I voted yes on this so Number two. This is a long one folks, but I'll read it to you and with anything like this You've got to take a minute to look at the official document. It's you know one sentence pracey is really not going to work on this okay question two Shall this quote shall the city be authorized to issue revenue bonds or notes In behalf of the electric light company in an amount not to exceed 20 million dollars To be issued pursuant to the truly city charter As may be determined by the city council and payable from net revenues of the electric system for the purpose of paying for one capital additions and improvements to the city's electrical system and energy conservation systems and to Let's see. I'm sorry here And and also energy goals including improvements to the city technology customer and financial information systems electric grid upgrades electricity generation plants and dams quote the project and funding a debt service reserve fund And paying the cost of insurance now these are both a lot of money, but in order for our city to To function in a modern and updated manner and this is a city that's very interested in uh In reducing our carbon footprint and trying to get off our terrible terrible addiction to fossil fuel so These these two questions I voted yes on both of them We're borrowing money to improve to put money into our system. And I think it's a win-win I think our credit this will help our credit rating I think this this gives us some money when we need it and I think these These improvements by 2025 will be long overdue. Um, so First one again, uh general obligation bonds Okay, and then the other one is is more determined to the electric electric company And I'd I'd just like to say my friend Darren springer was head of the electric company and my can or director of communications there The whole staff there is very strong And I think brawlingtonians we forget How inexpensive our electric bill is remember? This is a not for not for profit system And I think we're very foregoing to electric Um as our electric supplier and so I would vote yes on both questions one and two I think Sometimes you have to spend money. I think with the interest Interest rates being low and our bond rating. This will also improve our bond rating This has also had the support of the city council and enthusiastic support of the mayor So I'm going to vote yes on both these. Um Now What's going to happen with the election is it's it's it's interesting. There's no candidates going to be there It's just these two questions now by by the new law signed by governor scott Everyone and supported by the democrats all in vermont The uh, everyone is going to get a ballot sent to them in the mail and uh Now that's a very easy way to do it. I uh already got my ballot and I already voted I mailed it in Um, or you can drop it off at city hall Now a lot of folks and I and I I'm with them too on this because I've worked at the poll since 1996 Is they really enjoy going to the polls. Um, I work at the polls and I I really love it too So let me stress that all eight words that I I named again. I'm going to name them again one more time Modern christie school ward one. Okay up by uvm right next to um, Right next to the red cross ward two. That's my ward and where I am right now. Ho wheeler school Okay on archibald street ward three is the um, is the school on north street called the sustainability academy That is 120 north street ward four is st. Mark's church avenue Ward five is edmunds middle school On main street ward six is berlington electric and that would be at 585 pine street and then finally I I'm sorry, I don't know the The senior center. I believe it's on goss court and that's that's ward seven and then ward eight will be at 235 235 college street and that's where the library is now that is the ward ward eight where I talked about where my friend hannah king is going to be running for city council uh, that was a ward that was uh Basically the wards have to be within 10 of each other So that word was put out about The last time we we did a re appraisal of where we were with our population Which has to be done constitutionally every 10 years. So that word is going to be 10 years old that in in 2010 That word was put into being before them. We only had seven wards. We now have eight So I as I said, I read these I read these these questions to you and uh, To me, I think it's an I think it's pretty essential for us to keep up With the electric grid and all the different ways and new technologies that they have to make our footprint cleaner and Our our carbon our carbon output smaller and our fossil fuel imprint. Hopefully we'll go to nothing, but We're very far away from that But you know the city of berlington and bd has been a real leader on this stuff So again, I would like to say that I would I would I would hope that anyone watching this obviously you can get a copy of the language from the city If you haven't got your ballot, let me stress this You can give you can give city hall call at eight six five seven thousand We also have same day registrations. So let's say you you know, you want to vote, but you're new to town You can go to your polling place on december 7th From 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. And register You also can register at city hall You can also Register online if you'd like to give me a call. I'd be glad to register you 802 eight I'm sorry. Remember my own phone number here 802 5407 17 Okay, call.  So you were at with time. Okay Um, I want to invite everyone in the community on uh, thursday november 11th at 11 a.m So that would be tuesday november 11th the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour and that is when Uh, the hostility ceased in world war one the great war the war to end all wars supposedly Too bad that didn't turn out to be true. But we that's the day that america honors veterans day That's a national holiday and uh, there's a beautiful ceremony which takes place By that the brawlington veterans and vfw hold a beautiful outside ceremony again at 11 o'clock On thursday, which is november 11th, and it's about a 20 minute ceremony. It's really beautiful They play taps. There's some speakers um, I believe senator lehi and congressman welch and Mayor weinberger will be there and a lot of veterans and just friends of veterans and uh, I always have to go to remember my dear father who fought in the korean war when he was just 20 years old. So I guess wars You know started by the old and fought by the young and it never seems to change But uh, I'd also like to thank mr. John tracy who works for senator lehi and is a vietnam vet himself He organizes this and uh, it's it's easy with parking too because the mayor very kindly has the street blocked off And it it will take place rain or shine And at the top part of of battery park close to battery street And there's a there's a memorial there and that's what will take place So i'd like to invite everyone it always it always makes me feel good to go there and think about the sacrifice and think about But You know how how tough our history has been and um, thank goodness we're out of afghanistan and iraq And uh, I hope that we're not in any foreign wars for a long time. Maybe ever Uh, unfortunately in our long history, we've had to fight them many times for a lot of good reasons and sometimes not for the greatest reasons But I'd like to just thank all the veterans and uh And especially all the vietnam guys because uh, they're getting older now and their sacrifices I just was talking to a friend who's telling me his brother is dying of agent orange that 50 years ago. He got in vietnam. So that war that war still takes its human toll and uh anyone who goes to Washington I think you've got to go to the wall and just take a look at that and look at those names and go Oh my god, they go on forever and uh So so sad, but We will we will remember them with honor and affection on thursday november 11th Okay, let's talk about some national stuff here We had a we had a we had a tough tuesday last week. We had a couple tough elections Even though one turned out well in new jersey the governor there phil murthy won, but it was very very close The problem with new jersey I'll just be telling you folks is they are so taxed to the hilt and there's definitely a feeling of throw the incumbents out and uh I think this was the case. I think governor murphy's done an excellent job and uh He ran into he he ran into someone who campaigned hard and almost beat him but Again, we did get a win It was a lot closer and more uncomfortable than we wanted But maybe that sent a message that we've got to parse some of these taxes down um And then some truly bad news in virginia, uh terry mccullough who's a former governor of uh, virginia was defeated by uh By a republican candidate kind of a conservative person a person who was very crafty Kind of wooed in the trump folks and then kind of kept them in arms distance A fat cat guy who was had a carlisle investment. So supposedly worth 400 million dollars Has no government experience virginia is very Difficult because they have an interesting thing in their state constitution Where you cannot succeed yourself as governor So for example, if you run for governor and win four years later, you cannot run You can run after that four years, but you cannot succeed yourself. So in two consecutive terms So, uh, for example the the pretty popular moderate democratic governor ralph northland He wasn't able to run. Um, I like terry a lot terry is very much part of the democratic establishment. He was head of the dnc Um worked a lot with president clinton as raised. I don't know if anyone's raised more money for the party um, he ran into a buzz saw, uh, they used some They were able to talk about things called like critical race theory That's that's actually taught in college. It's not in high schools And and the republicans acted like it was being taught in first or second grade or something And basically critical race theory is is saying that we have to look through our whole country's history And realize that a lot of it most of it not all of it was built on institutional racism Our whole economy all our accomplishments, you know, we look back the the first how many presidents own slaves and And that in order to move forward as society, we need to take a critical look and realize that that race is Race is ingrained in almost every bit of our history And when we look at our history when we look at the omission when we we think of slavery, it's it's terrible and uh critical race theory is just trying to teach people that That race unfortunately is involved in almost every aspect of society. So Uh, they were able to scare people off thinking that this radical curriculum was going to be taught Which is not even radical. It's talking about history And again, they use they use different words. For example, they some people wanted to Virginia to ban Tony Morrison's book called beloved, which is an incredible book You know, she won the Nobel Prize and and and she talked about how it was in slavery days and she did not she You know, unfortunately this this terrible Rosie antebellum look at the old south is complete nonsense and bs And we need to lose that forever And we need we do need to look and realize that our history is so riddled with racism and murder and brutality and rape Amongst different people and amongst indigenous people and people of color And that must be recognized and that's something the democratic party we strive for we I I believe in everyone and um And I don't I don't believe in scare tactics and I don't believe in separating people and I don't believe by scaring people off I believe that we um, you know, we're all together. We're all in this together. So We lost in virginia. It's terrible. This guy this governor is going to be awful He's going to be conservative and and again these governors are also working on they're trying to they're trying to break row versus wade um, anytime you see Republican governors talking about returning things to the states that's basically an old school way of You know, the federal government takes the lead on voting rights on medicare on medicaid on social security And you know, the republicans fought tooth and nail against social security They fight for anything to help people Now president obama his greatest achievement domestically affordable care act He had the guts to put his name on it obama care How many people has that helped to to provide medicare medicaid for everyone? Now if someone goes to the doctor if someone is able to get health care without bankrupting them They're going to live longer. They're going to be more productive to society and I think the republicans really don't care about the people. They really don't We have for example, I was reading an article in uh, England They don't have any coal mines left, you know all those stories about coal mines in scotland and wales and and and northern england They're all gone now, but we still have them in appalachia and kentucky west virginia and Until we can get away from coal and these dirty dirty fuels such would kill our workers these guys these guys and women who go down a thousand feet into the earth's core and The the dust from the coal until we start trying to come up with a A plan for the people and an energy plan That gets rid of coal and all this dirty fossil fuels. We're really going to be in trouble and if we If if we did collect our job Our children our grandchildren beyond and beyond what's going to happen with them? What's going to happen to those seven generations? um So I guess I got I got off on a tangent here But virginia was disappointing. I like terry mccullough. He's a he's he was a moderate democrat um And unfortunately, he didn't win now terry. I know you're not watching this, but if you are Hey, we still need you in the party Um, we did have some wins. We had some great wins for democrats in new york city Eric adams is the new mayor of new york city. Congratulations, mr. Adams and also in boston michelle woe who ran a fantastic campaign is now mayor elect of boston um We With these wins come the losses now What happens with new jersey in virginia is They are the only two states that are have off-year elections and since those off-year elections Come in the president's first 10 months of his term They're always looked upon as uh an indicator where we're going now I'll tell you we won new jersey. It was closer than we wanted. Unfortunately. We lost virginia um, they still are very much enthralled to donald trump An illegal and a moral president a person who encouraged people to commit treason and uh You know if the republicans put him up god help us all But i'll be running hard against him and I don't think he has the interest of america heart I'm a big big fan of vice president biden Uh, I was fortunate enough to be a delegate for him in uh, 2020 And I really believe in him and also first lady dr. Jill biden. I think they're fantastic um His work on covet. I'm so glad we're out of afghanistan. It was not easy. We all know that it was not easy Um, his work on passing this infrastructure bill now I don't know. I've said this in past shows, but the average school in america is 60 to 70 years old Our roads and highways are old our bridges are old anyone who drives around chinton county or burlington. You all realize that These roads were not meant for this much this much, um This much ridership Jesus and you know every time I i'm going somewhere on my bicycle I see someone in a car and they're always just one person in a car line after line after line Hundreds and hundreds of cars just with one person in them and um, that's not gonna that's not gonna work our way out of this this fossil fuel crisis But the president has had some big victories He did a great job at the uh at the summit in uh europe last week and and meeting again with our allies and uh You know as we still are the leader of the free world now that that term sounds a little old, but it's true And uh, I think if we can get this coven worked on And get this infrastructure bill going on and get america back Going You know close to a hundred percent. I think it'll be years for we had a hundred percent We we will be much better and uh, I also think some of the great appointments that that president biden has made Really are good as cabinet appointments. I think uh vp. Kamala harris is doing a great job We already saw her husband the second gentleman mr. I am off come to burlington and and visit the community health center And I appreciated that i'm glad he did that You know we're getting in It we're still in the off year, but we're coming right on To an exciting year of politics Now I I just like to look out today. I don't have a decision on this. I haven't talked to him personally But I'd like to ask senator lehi. I hope you run against sir. I think you've done a fantastic job Um your chair appropriations. You are the senior center You uh, you provide amazing leadership. You were the uh you were the uh You helped officiate over the trial the second impeachment trial of of president trump But from your work in the senate from january 1st 1975 till today The thousands and thousands of votes all the good deeds you have done And uh, I really appreciate the work that you are doing and senator bernie sanders and carnation welch And um senator lehi if you're watching this, I sure hope you run again. Um, I'd like to say hi to all your staff and crew I think you do an amazing job And uh always been so kind to me. I've been fortunate to work for you a couple times But I can't wait to work on your reelection campaign and I'd like to thank you for a lifetime Of service and I'd also like to thank. This is lehi. I sure hope you're doing well my friend um those Those two care about vermont like like no other really and the work Um that senator lehi has done in washington and overseas and for example on uh Trying to ban and still haven't been able to do it still the landmines. Um, just all the wonderful things he's doing Um, I know he's working on a memoir and I know that'll have a lot of photography in it So senator lehi if you're watching this Hello, I can't wait to work on your campaign. Thanks for all your good work and Um, I appreciate your great service. Thank you so much So congressman welch, um, we had a lot of fun with him I marched in a couple parades with him this summer And his fantastic work in the house to get the stimulus package through the infrastructure package through And um, all the issues he's working on He also worked and I've mentioned this before but it it it bears repeating he uh He was the lead sponsor of this bill called save our stages which gave Places like the flint theater or higher ground or the lyric theater or theaters in st. Johnsbury or in white river or All over vermont some money to keep going because without arts We're just not the quite the same society and uh I'd like to thank his work for save our stages. He he was introduced by grace potter this summer at shellburn And gave a great speech and uh grace Grace you're back in vermont. We're so glad and uh So, you know, when you look at it, it's easy to say I know all these men and they've all been so kind to me But we really do have some of the top legislators in the country again. Thanks to senator lehi senator bernie sanders and senator senator Uh and congressman peter welch So I have about 12 minutes left here. I'm going to try to wrap up with a couple of things. Um I'm going to go over a few things again. I'd like to invite anyone Please come to the veterans day ceremony Which is this thursday two days from now november 11th at 11 o'clock at battery park It will it's been there for years and years like this and it will continue So it's always that day in time Now the 11th hour of the 11th day They fired the guns till 1059 and my late father told me in korea. He was there the last day He said they fired to the last minute. So, um All of a sudden everything went silent all across the western and eastern front And they said the silence was Was mind blowing after all those years hearing that and so to remember You know the greatest generation the world war two guys they are all Minimum of 95 years old and I remember all my uncles. They're all gone now One was at the battle of the bulge one was an mp One was in in the pacific came back weighing about 100 pounds and was six feet two because they all got malaria Uh one was a photographer one was in italy So I remember them also fondly. They're all gone now and uh They really tom brokaw. He put it right with the greatest generation. They were something And I'll tell you something about those guys.  I love you and to all the world war two men and women You know, you're all 95 and above I want to thank you There's usually a couple of world war two veterans at the ceremony some korean veterans some Some vietnam era veterans iraq desert storm desert freedom Afghanistan and uh, so again, we hope that you can come now that has nothing to do with politics. This is a non-partisan event and So anyway, I've got about 10 minutes left. Uh, let's talk about some couple things. I read the info on the On the voting questions. I um, I Will definitely be I already did vote. Uh, yes on vote one and two general obligation Uh funds to help fund to make improvements in the city Basically borrowing money at a small rate to increase our bond rating But also to increase our services with hope of a return. So to me, it's a win-win-win um So let's talk about nationally what's going on here We have we have a senate that is divided You know 50 50 we're very fortunate with Vice president Kamala being our vp because she's the 51st vote and she breaks a tie We have a couple democrats that you know don't seem to be on the program on the senator from arizona And the senator from west virginia now You can't have it both ways you can't take You can't take responsibility for all the good things we've done if you're voting against them So senator mansion and senator schmurma I hope you can look at things a little differently and and realize that That our country needs these this massive influx of money. I know it's an incredible amount of money It's the most money ever proposed for anything, but These are amazing times and as we see From the stock market. This country is just flying economically So we believe any money that is put in will come back with interest to us But things like community college free community college They might not have made the bill this time, but they're coming You know looking back the 15 dollar minimum wage everyone I remember. Oh my god And now now they can't now a lot of stores can't get anyone to work for 15 dollars It's going to have to be 20 or 25. We're seeing a lot of change in the In how we in how we shop how we work how we study how we go to our work jobs And I I don't know if it is all rabbled out and we'll still be able to figure it out The days of people going to the office five days a week I think are over When I look back on that I'm 58 years old So I was definitely part of that but my my parents generation. That's that's what was expected and that's what that's what happened So out of calamity and tragedy sometimes come new things that might seem Differently weird. You don't work at the office. You don't have to go in you can work in your pajamas You can sit in your bed and work You can you know, it's incredible but With thank goodness america leading the way on technology that is possible so Thinking outside the box is important and I think I think we have some wonderful new leadership in in washington that is working on that for us So I have about I think about eight minutes left. I'm going to talk about um I'm going to talk a little bit about town meeting town meeting is now four months away a little less So it's about 16 weeks away What is going to happen is both the democratic party And the progressive party will hold caucuses in early december There are eight city council races up this time around we have 12 counselors, but eight are up now. We have staggered terms. So we will have We will have council races in all eight wards one two three four five six seven eight summer incumbents and um And and and we will hopefully put up some challengers to some progressive challengers I see I have five minutes left. I'd like to thank my producer extraordinaire. Jordan. I appreciate you man Um, I know this show has been We've done some different things here. We've rambled a little bit, but there's so many topics and the national topics Blend into the state and local um We will Have the democrats will field competitive candidates in all eight wards as I mentioned today an excellent Outstanding announcement by my friend hannah king that she is running for city council on ward eight I think she will be an awesome candidate. I'd like to endorse her on air right now I will be helping you with a contribution. I will be helping on your campaign And I think you have the vision the energy the intelligence the honesty of you fantastic city counselor So hannah king ward eight that's basically from uvm down to about the library bordered by pearl and college or maybe pearl and main And it's one of our smaller wards. It votes again at the library 230 235 college street Again, here's what I worry about I I see I did a lip drop for the wonderful our wonderful speaker jill kowinsky actually today I was out doing it and it had a lot to do with about covet and about what she and Representative McCormick are doing across the state and and in our district about covet about helping people with School building with talking about extending the office of racial equity promoting health care equity Talking about child care And we've updated some Vermont election laws now. We have universal vote by mail We have new provisions to cure defective ballots What that means is is if you didn't sign your ballot we can call you and you can correct it It's great accessible secure drop boxes. That is fantastic. There are two drop boxes. No, there's several there's some in the south end by Brilliant electric there's some in the new north end and then there's some outside city hall and then Secretary of state maintenance of statewide voter checklists for accuracy The checklist is vitally important and to update it and keep it accurate. It's fantastic Again, thanks to secretary state jim condos who I know is running again and again. I'm endorsing who does a fantastic job And report best practices for increasing access for voters with limited or no english now Their ballot I believe is I believe was published in brolling for the last time around in six Languages so If you have a friend that has trouble with english or is esl We can help them. You can give me a call 802 5407 17 you can reach out to your city counselor. You can reach out to the mayor's office. That's 8657 272 Or you can reach out to city hall 8657 000 I'd like to thank jill and curt for again Distributing this all around the district and this is non partisan This talks about all the good stuff they were doing. I talked about the kovat. I want to give the kovat number if you have any kovat question 863 7240 also This is a statewide number which will help you for a lot of different stuff. It's it's just a very simple number two one one so Here's what i'm worried about i'm worried about People who haven't received their ballot. Let's say they lived on school street and they moved to college street We need to change their registration and they can get a ballot sent to them We still have over a month, but I also want to let people know that you can vote Sure, you can vote by mail sure you can go to city hall and vote sure you can drop it off But also the best And probably historically the best way is to go to the polls all eight polls will be open I'm down to a minute left. Wow 44 minutes down and one to go I'd like to thank again my producer extraordinaire jordan I'd like to thank daniel my cameraman and monitor man. I'd also like to thank megan Um, I'd like to thank everyone here channel 17. This is like a family. They're such Wonderful people and always make us feel so welcome and do such a great job on production I'd like to thank them again. We will be on december 14th. I'm gonna have a special guest I've got former state senator meryl candidate and state rep judy stefanie hernan We're going to talk about burlington in the 70s 80s and 90s. I'm down to about one minute I'm about about 30 seconds. I believe and so Let let me wrap it up If if you haven't gotten the shot get the shot if you have a friend who hasn't gotten the shot Bring them help them educate them get the shot Please come to 11th at 11 o'clock to battery park for our veterans and also please vote december 7th on these two bond issues I would vote yes on both these. Thank you and have a great afternoon. I appreciate it


Washington State has a history of large earthquakes. More than 1,000 earthquakes are registered in Washington State each year. In an earthquake, non-structural elements, which is anything that does not actually hold the building up, may become unhooked, dislodged, thrown about, and tipped over. This can cause extensive damage, interruption of operations, injuries, and even death. By taking action now, you can prevent injuries, save lives, and reduce the damage caused by earthquakes and other geologic hazards. Non-structural hazards can often be very easy and inexpensive to remedy. Positioning furniture differently in the room, bolting heavy and tall furniture to the walls, and removing dangerous and heavy items from top shelves are all possible fixes. Use your safety committee, emergency response teams, and maintenance personnel to identify and reduce or eliminate hazards. Focus on those hazards that represent the greatest life safety threat. Okay, so I think that this will probably fall in front of the door. Can we move it over here? Start by moving any heavy furniture or equipment that may move and block exits. Ken Urie from Emergency Supply Center will help with installing hardware and other non-structural procedures. Computers and monitors should be secured with seismic buckles, earthquake matting, or other earthquake restraining devices. Tall bookcases or other heavy furniture should be secured to the wall using approved fastening techniques. All mounted objects over five pounds, such as monitors or televisions, should be connected to structural framing. File cabinets should be secured to the wall. Drawers should remain locked when not in use. If the drawers are unlocked, they can become projectiles. Wall decorations and pictures should be securely attached to the walls using recommended methods. We're using a picture snap with Velcro corners. Closed eye hooks or wire could also be used. Potted plants or other heavy items should be properly secured with Velcro or guardrails. Hanging plants or mobiles should be well secured with wire loops or closed eye hooks. AV equipment, such as monitors, video players, radios, speakers and so on, should be securely anchored with heavy-duty Velcro, earthquake matting, or seismic buckles. Roger, what we're going to be doing today is taking your monitor. Since you have all these windows here and the glass could blow in on you and give you cuts and injuries, we're going to move you to a safer location away from the window. Desks should also be moved away from windows in case they fracture during a quake. Or shatter resistant film should be put on the glass to prevent broken pieces from flying about. Heavy-double objects should be attached to surfaces using either earthquake putty or museum wax, or placed on earthquake mats to reduce damage or injury. Okay, let's go ahead and take the high objects down so they don't hurt anybody. Okay, I'll take this one. Heavy objects should be moved from overhead cabinets or storage areas. Rolling carts should have their wheels locked. Bookcases should have bungee cords or guardrails to keep books from tumbling off the shelves. These we're going to print once we know what our budget is. Remember, when the ground starts to shake, do not run. Drop, cover, and hold under a desk or heavy piece of furniture. Remain under the desk until the shaking stops.  Prepare because you care. For more information, call your local emergency management office or Washington State Emergency Management at 1-800-562-6108.


Our next briefer is an associate professor of leadership at the Air University Leadership Institute. She has a Ph.D. in counselor education from Auburn University and a master of arts degree in counseling from the University of Maryland College Park. Her principal areas of research are suicide and resilience, and she is an international speaker and published author in those areas. With 24 years of teaching and clinical experience, she was invited to leverage her knowledge and social sciences across all levels of Air Force professional military education. She is a subject matter expert on her topics and works closely with headquarters, consulting, collaborating, and discussing curriculum content. She has contributed to developing policy, strategy, and standard operating procedures and routinely lectures across all organizational levels of both the air and space forces. Prior to her current position, she served for 10 years as a mental health consultant and trainer for leadership across the Department of Defense and proudly served as a military spouse for 20 years. Since joining Air University in 2015, she has held various academic positions and hails originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Chiefs, please rise and give a warm welcome to Dr. Mary Bartlett. Hello, hello. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.  When I was growing up, my parents taught me always to respect people, clergy, teachers, and law enforcement. And when I married into the Air Force, I was taught to always, of course, respect leaders, but in particular chiefs. Make sure you respect your chiefs. So it is a real pleasure to be here with you. I recognize the important role that you have that you're going into if you haven't yet started your role. And I have the honor of spending the next hour with you trying to convey some important information. Really, it's less than an hour because I want to make sure and try to leave some time for Q&A, but I want to let you know that at the end, if we do run out, I'm not rushing out. I will be available up front to respond to some questions. But in the next 45 minutes or so, I'm going to talk about obviously a very sobering topic, a topic that you will be heavily involved in. As you know, there's probably no one in this room who hasn't yet dealt with suicide, either an airman attempting suicide or the loss of an airman to suicide. It's a very sobering, provocative topic. And my goal today is not to give you charts and graphs and data and stats. My goal today is transcend the training that you've already had and hopefully to teach you something new. If you've heard me before, then I hope that you learn one new nugget. If you haven't, I hope that you will take away and grow from this and think about this information and as you need to reach out and hopefully get the support that you need from me or someone else. So what I want to cover is I want to first define the challenge. What is the challenge that U.S. chiefs are going to have in working through and continuing the discussion about this topic? I want you, I do not think that we can do good prevention, intervention or postvention unless a person understands the suicidal mind. You've got to understand what brings a person to that point that they would make this truly the most important decision in life, whether or not to live or die. I want to also spend a little time talking about postvention. All the things that leaders will do after an airman attempts suicide and or dies by suicide. So there's a gap area. I'm getting a lot of questions recently in the last couple of months. More focus on after I have an airman who attempts suicide, how do I reintegrate them back into the unit? And so hopefully we'll have enough time to answer some questions on that. But also I'm going to, I hope, give you a glimpse into the experience of what it's like to be a survivor of suicide. I think it's so crucial for chiefs to understand what is the person the survivor actually going through so that you can lead well your senior NCOs and your first sergeants and the frontline supervisors that you will be supervising who are going to be eyeball to eyeball with the person who's lost a 13 year old child to suicide. Again, I realize that there's no one in here that hasn't been touched by suicide in some way. And so if anything is, you know, this triggers anything for you, please come see me. Let's talk about it after. I myself have been touched by suicide as you can imagine. I've worked with many, many airmen and I've lost airmen to suicide. And then as a clinician in the civilian world, I've lost many clients to suicide. So I truly speak for my heart. All right. Now what the first challenge we have is helping people understand that there are three prongs to prevention. We've got the prevention, all the stuff that we hope comes from the left of the boom, right? Teaching our airmen grit, hardiness, fortitude, resilience, emotional intelligence and all that really good stuff. That's where we want to spend the majority of time. That's why I want you to spend the majority of your time. That's the prevention stuff. And of course, educating people annually about what changes in research how that's changed things and what we know about how to help people and prevent suicide, because we can prevent it. There's a lot of opportunity to prevent. And we do good intervention. What do we do with a person who's in that kind of psychological pain, but postvention? That's the third prong to this process. And we are now beginning to make the shift to understand postvention better and educate our leaders on postvention. Postvention becomes good prevention. If you don't do good postvention, there's the chance that you might not message things correctly after a suicide or after attempt. And it may lead to others who are vulnerable making a decision to die by suicide as well. So we also know that after you've lost a loved one to suicide, it's another risk factor added to the plate that might put you at a higher risk to think about or die by suicide. So I'm very pleased that in the last four years, the Air Force has made great progress on this issue of postvention. We have a long way to go. And again, just happy to present some of the information to you. I'm curious, I am curious, who here has not heard the word postvention? Okay, just a couple. Let me just assure you, I mentioned I was looking back last night at slidesets for this presentation I did back in 2017, 18, 19, 20. And it was interesting because when I'd asked that question, most of the whole room would actually raise their hand. So we are indeed making progress. All right. Part of the other challenge that you have, kind of twofold, not just doing your own self-assessment, but asking those you're leading to make sure that they're assessing themselves. This is the part of kind of teasing out for yourself and thinking about these are not questions we ask people normally to think about. What kind of a person do I think dies or kills him or herself? You have to know that this self-assessment is really crucial. Because if you don't reflect on and process through some of these questions, your biases will come out. Whether or not you ask a person about their suicidal thinking will be impacted, how you ask the questions and what you do with the information will be impacted. So if you have certain beliefs about suicide or a person who dies by suicide that can severely impact what you're going to do in the new role that you have as chiefs and how you lead people because people will be following your example. And these are questions that, of course, I want you in the new positions that you're going into to make sure your airmen are considering. Because we must debunk the myths. It is amazing to me that I've been working in the field of suicide for more than 20 years and we still have leaders who buy into myths about suicide that have been debunked 15 years ago. And it's those myths and these biases in the absence of assessing yourself and what your beliefs truly are about it, it is the absence of that that can make a difference in how we prevent suicide and certainly how we work with someone who's in that kind of pain. Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking just for 30 minutes in the leader development course and afterward gave some time, you know, a couple of students stayed on. It was a virtual thing. And this officer said, hey, listen, I want you to know I consider myself a fairly empathetic person. I do empathy well on all sorts of other crises or issues. He said, but have to tell you. And he was very transparent and I appreciated that. I don't do empathy well when it comes to suicide. I don't feel very empathetic to the person who attempts suicide or to the person who dies by suicide. And he said, and now as I'm getting prepared to go into squadron leadership as a squadron commander, can you help me with that? And I was so grateful that he asked the question because he was spot on. It's about understanding the suicidal mind to develop that kind of empathy. And so we talked about it, but those are some of the challenges. Here's another challenge. In 2017, a study was done across the Department of Defense to sort of check out why are service members not asking for the help that they need? So the results are posted here. I hope you can see them well. This was an interesting study. As you see, they identified six kind of core areas that are preventing service members from reaching out and getting the help they need when it's left of the boom before it becomes I want to die. Okay, so six different areas. Now, what's interesting is they replicated this study in 2019. Well, I guess I lied. I forgot to have these in here. So a little bit of data. In 2019, they replicated the study, and what they found is they only had five that they teased out instead of six. But look at the numbers. I wish I could show you them side by side. I can't, but the percentages went up. So it shows that except for one, the barriers that are airmen across the Department of Defense that our service members are saying exist and prevent them from reaching out for the help, we're not getting better. We're actually getting worse. And so we need to really work on that. And I believe some of the efforts at the Department of the Department of the Air Force are getting after that. Okay, so I think that that sort of helps you just put some context into what are some of the barriers.  You've probably in your entire career always had this conversation.  And so, again, a little context for what's the challenge that you're going to have in continuing these discussions and helping our airmen to understand that it's something that we need to discuss and it's something that they need more training on because we continue to make strides and get good research, find better research and complete better research every year. So, now, let me help you understand suicide. For those of you who still believe in the myths, for those of you who have lost someone to suicide, for those of you who have biases and beliefs, spiritual or familial, any kind of belief and misunderstanding, I want to give you a glimpse into what it's like to be suicidal. And probably the majority of you have already experienced this yourself. So, Ed Schneidman is the founder of the American Association of Suicidology and he had this, I love his quote, this is what suicide says. I can carry this far, I cannot carry it any further. I cannot go on any further. That's what suicide is saying. This is about a person who's 35, 45, going through a terrible divorce, loses his children in a custody battle. This was his or her foundation and they truly believe that they are better off dead than alive. They wake up, this is a person who wakes up in the morning and thinks it is easier for me to die than it is for me to get through the pain of the day of carrying this. Okay, so a little bit wordy here, but essentially what this slide is giving you is the information that you need to understand. It's a glimpse into that mind, the information you need. There are lots of different theories that explain suicide. The one that the Air Force and many of the other branches use is that by Thomas Joyner. And Dr. Joyner says there are three things that lead a person to suicide. Three components. The person feels a sense of burdensomeness. Now, these don't come in any particular order. They're very fluid. So that's what makes it a little bit nebulous. But they feel a sense of burdensomeness. When the person also feels a sense of disconnectedness. Now, this makes sense. If you feel burdened and you don't feel safe to share the burden, then you start to disconnect from things and people. Your faith, your social groups and your family.  And this is why there's a lot of research on veterinarians and why their rates of suicide have increased and have been increasing for some time. Because they, like service members, are kind of at the death's door all the time. When you're in combat, you're at death's door. They are euthanizing animals every day. It becomes part of their acquired capacity to be around death and experience it. And this is one of the things that in this theory helps explain how a person gets to a place where they might actually choose to die. A person who is thinking about suicide is experiencing profound psychological pain. There is no one in this room who hasn't experienced pain.  Everyone has experienced some sort of grief. And this is a psychological grief that a person is experiencing. We have to shift our culture from believing that it's, that attempts our attention seeking to help seeking. This is about, again, a 45, 35, 20 year old airman who doesn't have the words to articulate the kind of pain that they're experiencing inside. And so I always describe it this way. What does a two-year-old do when he or she can't describe and articulate what they want? They have attempt, they act it out. That's help seeking. And parent, the parent is to help them find their words. And chiefs, I'm telling you, this is what you will be doing. You've gotten a lot of great information this week and you still have more to go. Learning strategy and learning about China and defense and all sorts of other things. And I'm biased, of course. But to me, there is no more important work you will do in your role as a chief than helping a person make a decision on how they're going to handle their psychological pain. All right? So for those of you who are more visual, here's another way of looking at it. When we, when you can get a person to talk about what they feel burdened by and what they're feeling, and how they're feeling disconnected, we can research shows. We can generally get a person to back away from dying by suicide. It's when we add that third component and all three are present that suicide becomes a real option. So the most important question I think you can ask in your very important roles is where does it hurt and how can I help? Never underestimate the importance of your role. Your role is crucial. People are looking up to you. And when you ask this question, where does it hurt and how can I help, you change a person's world and you may not even know it. So a little bit of defining what the challenges are going to be for you and your roles, helping you get a glimpse into the mind of a person who's thinking about suicide and now I'm shifting into defining postvention. I love this quote. I've worked with survivors for many, many years and the survivor said this to me. It's not hard for me to talk about it with others, but it sure seems hard for them to listen to it or to hear it. And she is, she was absolutely right because here's how it works. We can get our heads around losing someone by an accident. Accidents happen. We can get our heads around someone dying by cancer. We know this happens, but no one is prepared to lose a person to suicide, to lose their loved one to suicide. No one is prepared for that.  We need to help them feel equipped to be able to help the 35 year old airman that has lost his wife of 17 years.  If there's anything you need, let me know. But when you lose someone to suicide, not only do you not get the casserole, but your neighbors go out the back door because they don't know how to talk to you. They don't know what to say. They don't know what to ask and they don't know what to do. And now you create an even bigger risk because survivors oftentimes feel lonely. And so we're, and of course losing a loved one to suicide puts them at a risk. So now we're checking the boxes even more. So knowing how to do this postvention is really crucial. All right, 2015 was the first time, 2015 was the first time I saw the word postvention in an AFI. And this is our newest AFI. And this is from 2019. And it actually gives you, if you haven't read this, I hope you have, it actually gives you the first formalized Air Force definition of what postvention is. And it basically says, again, what you're going to do to help a person after they've attempted or completed the family after they've completed and hopefully to prevent others from dying by suicide. All right, so why this increased focus? I sort of gave you a hint at the beginning. This is sort of taking a shift over the last four years. Many, many, many, many service members had never, and leaders had never heard the word postvention.  Can you come out and help us with some stuff? And I would say yes. And let me also discuss with your people the concept of postvention. And they would say, Hey, listen, never heard that word, don't know what that word is, got too much on a plate and don't want to know. Just do the prevention. It's so interesting that we're getting there. We're getting there. But we know that in 2019, the Air Force and its history had its worst number of suicides. Combined suicides exceeded accidents, natural causes, and combats combined. It was a bad year. And of course, the Department of the Air Force is making some real effort to sort of tackle this, if you will. We know that if you as a chief can help the triad or your squadron or whatever, wherever you'll be located as a chief, if you can help your leadership team not duplicate efforts, streamline it, and organize themselves, then we can do postvention more effectively. So most people don't know that postvention stuff, all the stuff that you've been doing as senior NCOs up through your entire career, this is not just shoot from the hip willy-nilly, do what feels good because it makes me feel good. There's actually a strategy to postvention and there are three specific goals. The first is, and this is what we're asking you to do, is help promote healthy healing. How can you heal a community of people that have been impacted by a death? Some in different ways, but how can you help them, how can you help heal that community so you can get back to pre-suicide operational status if we don't help people heal? So if you remember 20 years ago, the Air Force was not encouraging wing commanders to have a memorial for this person. Now not only Pendulum and Swung, now not only do we encourage wing commanders to have a memorial, we have an entire guide and a booklet or a whole handout on how to do memorial services correctly because we know messaging is crucial. And again, if you are not aware of what your biases are or if you buy into the myths, what you message can make the difference between whether or not someone else hurting in your area or your organization who's thinking about suicide may or may not. I'm not trying to put, it's not all on you. I'm just making the point that we need our leadership to understand that messaging is really crucial and how we message things afterward, particularly in our memorial services. So second goal is to reduce the risk of contagion.  We've got to reach the other vulnerable population. And then we need to link them to the right resources. And we have exploded in terms of resources. And I don't know if you caught that on the data slide, the one data slide that I showed. One of the barriers to care is that service members are saying, now there's so much out there. I don't even know where to start. So Wing had a suicide less than a month ago and I got a call. And the Wing commander was in it. The chief was in it. You know, first sergeant and the violence prevention integrator. And she was, I love transparency. I love it when people are real. And she said, Dr. Bartlett, you know, could you just, there's so much out there. I am the person that leads suicide prevention on the installation. I am overwhelmed right now. Just tell me which three pieces of information or resources are the best for us to use to guide our postvention effort. We also know that we've got to take care of you. Because despite our efforts, we know that leaders often experience still shame, accusation, guilt, and may not receive the support that they need.  All right. I'm hoping you can see this. This is a glimpse. Oftentimes I'm asked, well, how long does this postvention stuff go on? Right? All right. It seems like it goes on for maybe 30 days after the memorial. But that's not true. What makes postvention so unique is that you don't need to know the person who died by suicide to be impacted by it. It has a profound ripple effect across, you know, the organization. And so even if you didn't know the person, it conjures up unresolved grief. You cannot separate out spirituality from suicide. It is the most existential decision a person will make in their life. And so this is a graph that came out in the Defense Suicide Prevention Office produced in 2020. It's a new booklet. It's posted on the resilience web page for the Air Force. Page 25 shows you, because these are the questions I could ask. Who's involved in this postvention process and for how long?  This is one of the best graphics I've seen so far to describe it. But please note it goes out to 180 days. Isn't that interesting? Because the impact of suicide, as you know, if you've lost someone, goes well beyond 180 days. Now, this does not mean you're going to be talking about suicide every day for 365 days. But it does mean that you're aware of the culture and the environment and the pulse of what's going on across your organization. You're going to have three kinds of people after a suicide. You're going to have the group of people that come into your organization that were not there when the suicide occurred. You're going to have the group of people who were there and have moved on and have made, you know, they've resolved this internally. And then you're going to have the group of people who are still not, still in pain over the experience. And you need to find a way to appeal to all of them. To the first group, it is, you weren't here when this happened, but we need you to be a good wingman because we have people who are hurting still from the loss of that person. For those who were here and you're moving forward, this is great news. I'm so glad. I hope that we have helped you heal and grieve to get you to that place. But you still have peers and wingmen who are struggling. I need you to be there for them. And then to appeal to those who are still struggling for a whole year and say, for those of you who are still struggling, know that we're here for you. People heal in different ways and at different rates and we're aware of that. Let us know what you need because they might be your vulnerable population. So this is a glimpse into the experience of a survivor. These are things that people just don't think about.  You get to the house and you are told that your 13-year-old son has died.  And you are told you can't because it is now an investigation scene. These are things we just don't think about that the survivor goes through. Or this is another thing where I always like to tell chiefs and first sergeants, you are crucial in this recovery process because if a person has gone through a very bitter divorce and now there's a funeral and the other spouse says don't come to the funeral, do not show up at this funeral. This is where you can step in. This is where your power and your capacity in the role that you have, you can step in and say, hey, I understand this is going on. How about if in two weeks from now we have a graveside service and you tell me who the six people are that you want to be there and we'll make it happen. That's powerful. That's helping promote the first strategy, the first goal of postvention. Promote healthy healing. Promote it. And be aware that this is not your typical kind of loss and it's not your typical kind of grief. And so most of you are probably trained to know that in grief there are five basic stages that have been well researched, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Your people, your survivor is going to go through these stages. And in addition, and this is why we need to better educate on postvention, in addition to that, this is what they're experiencing, a myriad of other emotions that you my friends will be handling. You will be leading and supervising the first sergeant who's going to be face to face talking to the person experiencing this. So the loneliness, the shame, the guilt, the frantic search for meaning, why did my husband die? Why did my person die? So you need to understand that this is what makes postvention a little bit different and why we need a little bit of extra education on it. So there are long term goals for survivors. This is a glance into this is where you're helping your people in your units and your organizations get to that are survivors. You want to get them to forgive their loved one who died by suicide, get over their anger, get past the anger that is pretty typical and accept the mysteries of the unknowns. Because we as a culture, not only do we not do grief well or anger well, we don't talk about this kind of stuff because we don't want to discuss the reaction to it. So these are the long term goals that you and those that you're leading are going to try and help that person get to. These are the goals for you. We need, as you know, and in the guidebooks that we have now, we know that leadership visibility after any crisis is crucial because you're like parents. Our leaders are like parents that your presence means something, gives us strength, gives your airman strength and purpose. And if they see you coping okay, but grieving appropriately, then they too can reach that. But we need to make sure that that leadership is visible. And this is, I think, again, where chiefs come in when there's a suicide and you're working with the squadron or whatever it might be to decide which leaders are going to walk through, you may be the ones that have to say, hey, sir or ma'am, are people, my people don't have a relationship with so and so. And I think a better person to have eyeball contact with them is such and such.  You don't want someone who's not authentic. You don't want someone who's not transparent. You don't want someone who has verbally bought into the myths and the biases and spoken about it to dissuade people from reaching out for help. That's not the person you want walking through the unit, right? All right. And then, of course, it is absolutely crucial to make sure that you are giving thought to what I call the peripheral people, the people that don't normally get the support that they need, like the people in casualty response that responded to your suicide, the people in mortuary or the person in mortuary affairs that took care of all the events and the details, if you will. The first airman's suicide I had was at Ariya Mildenhall and the wing commander that was 25 years ago, a wing commander decided to hold a memorial. And so three nights later we had the memorial. I walked into the chapel and I saw this young girl standing off into the corner. She could not have been older than 19. Clearly it was her first duty station and it was overseas, very young. One afternoon I said, how did you know so and so? And she said, I didn't know so and so. I said, well, what brings you to the memorial? And she said, I'm the photographer for public affairs that was asked to take pictures of the scene. And I said, how are you doing? And she said, not well, ma'am. I have not slept since I took those pictures. So be thoughtful of the peripheral type of people that are involved in this postvention effort. It can impact and again the ripple effect is profound. All right, but I would be remiss if I didn't in hoping to give myself a little 10 minutes to answer some questions, I would be remiss if I didn't also talk about taking care of you and how what your role will be in taking care of your leaders, right? It might be the chief that says to the squadron commander, hey, I know that you go running every day five miles and you haven't done that in five days because I see you on the path. How about if we go again starting tomorrow? Taking care of leaders because it's all, I'd be surprised if there wasn't someone here, not everyone has experienced suicide. You know those first seven to nine days, 10 days, it's like a rocket ship.  So we also need to make sure that we're taking care of you. You will be having, as you know, conversations with people who lost someone to suicide 15 years ago, but this suicide has conjured that pain back up and you're the ones that they may come to to ask for help. I wanted to make sure that I always include a slide on resources. There are many more. This is a snapshot. These are some of my favorite and they include their resources for both prevention and postvention. Of course, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors deals with all kinds of airmen loss, family loss, right? They have an actual separate division that focuses just on suicide death. Many people don't know that. So I want to always make sure that you feel empowered as you take this on in your next role and move forward and that you feel equipped. And then I've been teaching for long, long, long time so I know to come prepared. If you don't have questions for me, don't worry, I have questions for you because if I ask you questions and you give me some information, then I can do my job more effectively and help those that you're leading. So I'm not wedded to these questions. We've got about 10 minutes. I know that you're anxious to leave and go have lunch and I apologize that I'm standing between you and that. I think the last thing I want to say before we get into the Q&A, I always like to end with this. Some of you might remember, what's his name? The Las Vegas, Wayne Newton, right? Wayne Newton is a performer in Las Vegas. He was about 184 when I was 6 years old. He's about 294 now.  But I love this because he was quoted once in a magazine as saying, if I come to you and I ask you for some money and you give me some of your money, that's all you've done is give me some of your money. But if I come to you and I ask you for some of your time and you give me your time, then you have changed my life. You are life changers. You are hope brokers. And so I want to say before we go into the Q&A, thank you for giving me your time and changing my life. And thank you for the work that you're going to do to help strengthen and build resilient airmen. So with that, I am ready and prepared to entertain your questions. I'll remember it. Well, I'd like to say this. I don't work for the Department of the Air Force. I don't work for the Pentagon and DAF. And I don't work in operations at A1Z. I simply try to advise them in the work that they do. So there might be some questions I may not be able to answer. So, and if there are, don't worry, I'll get you answers. Okay. Thoughts, I would say thoughts, comments, questions or feelings because I'm a therapist and I can handle feelings. Hey, good afternoon, ma'am. This is CMassard Dustin Hughes from Fort Gordon, Georgia. So, I took over as a squadron SCL for my squadron in November 2019. Excuse me, November, November 20. And then on January 13, 2021, we had a suicide in our squadron. So, my question is, in regards to support for the family afterwards. So, the boss and the first sergeant and I, we had plenty of conversations afterwards on how long should we continue to contact the family. The spouse was a key spouse, right? So, there was obviously a relationship there that was there beforehand. And my wife is a key spouse as well. So, my wife maintained, you know, communication afterwards as well because they had developed a relationship. But that's often the question that I talked to other leaders throughout the Air Force. How long had they maintained that communication? Because at some point in time, right, you have to let go. And because a member, you know, the spouse, and the member is not a, they're not in the unit anymore, right? So, there has to be some, there's got to be a point where you just let go and things go on. So, I just wanted to get your take on what you think is the right amount of time. And I know it will be different for every situation, but I'd like to get your thoughts. Thank you. Right. You hit the nail on the head. It is different for each situation. It's dependent on the kind of relationship you had with the person, how involved that family member was with the unit, how you seem them adjusting, if they're reaching their long-term goals. And so, rule of thumb for me when I'm, when I'm teaching first sergeants is put a note or something that pops up on your phone for up to a year. So, at the six-month point, even if the family has moved back to, you know, their hometown, and they're no longer on the installation, near the installation, at six months, send them just a, hey, checking in on you, I'm still healing. I'm wondering how you are. You might do that for, I'm sorry, key holidays. This is your first Christmas without Chris, and I'm wondering, and just don't want you to know I'm thinking about you. So, it doesn't even have to be a question that requires a phone call or follow-up, but just I'm thinking of you. And I would encourage doing that up to a year. Now, one thing I've learned about survivors is they're very, very good about letting you know what they need. I'm sorry, about telling you whether or not they are able to talk about it. So, when you go up to a survivor and say, hey, I want to check in and see how you're doing, they will usually say, I can't talk to, I can't do it today, or they will say, thank you for asking, because I so rarely get asked about Beth. I so rarely get asked. So, it really is dependent on your relationship with the family, their relationship with the organization, what your experience with suicide is, and how you have rolled through it and knowing what someone else might need. There's no steadfast date, you know, and some survivors are angry at the Air Force. And so, they may not want you to follow up, and they'll tell you. One thing I also know about survivors is that, unlike a person who has lost someone to cancer, you can't go up to them and say, tell us what you need. In the case of survivors of suicide, you have to tell them what you will do for them. So, maybe in this case, as you're reaching out to the families and trying to decide what they need, you can say, I will be, as they're moving, I will be in touch with you at least once a quarter, just until we get you through the first year, so that you know, I'm still thinking about Benjamin. Does that help? All right. I've got time for one more question. Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm C. M. S. R. Mbossi from a Barksdale Air Force base. Barksdale? Yes, ma'am. So, I've seen that you're, we're well versed on a lot of things that we kind of do to help prevent. I'm sorry, can you just, could I, thank you. Awesome. I'm sorry, I'm a little sick. I couldn't hear you for two days. Okay, so I know, I know. I feel your pain. No, no worries. So, basically, since you're well versed on a lot of things that we do to help prevent suicide, I know a lot of the, a lot of the people they deal with their first-line supervisors a lot. My question for you is coming from, from my level, what are some of the things that we can do in addition to provide that additional information to our NCOs and our first-line supervisors to have more prepared and actually can pick on things more so, so they can be more helpful in this situation. Okay, so the question is, how do we as chiefs now help our front-line supervisors to help those who are survivors? Well, yes, but from your perspective, I know from my, how I feel I want to approach it, but I would like to get your perspective because you're an expert. So, what would you say that we could do more in the Air Force to help those front-line supervisors to be more aware of possible suicide situations? Wonderful question, love it, and wish I had about 30 more minutes. All right, right off the top of my head in less than a minute. We need to help our front-line supervisors understand that they're, we know that there's the checklist. That's why title is beyond the checklist. The checklist is perfunctory. We need to help them understand that there are resources out there to help them. They're not powerless. They're not, not being supported. There is stuff out there. We need to make sure that they know about the resilience website so they can look at that information. We need to make sure that we're taking care of them, that recognizing that if they're day in and day out, eyeball to eyeball with a survivor or with someone who's at risk for suicide, that we're making sure that they feel connected and empowered to take care of them. So it's providing the resources, it's having the discussion, checking in with them, and I would say, let me think, resources, checking in with them, and advocating. Because when you advocate and you listen to them, when I teach at the NCO Academy, right after I write everything they've said down so that I can take their voice and make sure someone hears it. And in your case, listening to what they have to say and what they are telling us, we don't have this, we need this, I don't understand this, and then making it happen or taking it to the powers that be that can make it happen. That's the best advice I have in less than 60 seconds. I hope that helps, would love to talk more with you offline. I do, I have five more minutes, so my clock is round. Great. It's an easy one. It's actually two things. One's a statement and one is a question for you. C.M.S. Sergeant Ashnett Young from Shaw Air Force Base. I want to say that I really appreciated your brief. My mother committed suicide when I was 15 years old, and my brother was seven, and we actually split. I went to live with my aunt, and he went to live with his dad, and it caused us to handle it differently. But some of the things, actually the majority of the things that you said on there, I still see in my brother, and I'm 43 years old. So I say this because when I joined the military, I was not open to talk about it. I was ashamed. But then attending, of course, our mandatory suicide awareness briefings that we have, it helped me overcome some of it. But I say to all of my peers in this room, if you hear someone in a training talk about suicide, oh, why do we have to do this again? Nip it in the bud, because I had that several times in my career, and it wasn't just airmen. Sometimes it was senior NCOs and stuff. So us coming from diverse backgrounds, you don't know people's story unless you get out and talk to them. And in a crowded like this, you don't know people's stories. We can't approach everyone to get that connection. So it is our job to nip it in the bud, pull them to the side, or whatever, or just stay it out loud. That's not what we need, because we don't know who has been through it, and we don't know who is actually having those thoughts at that time. And I've seen it go, you know, uncorrected, especially when I was an airman, and I didn't think I had a voice to say anything to someone else. So that's all I have to say about that. But my question is, do you think that our education and prevention that we get in the military, do you think that that is helping airmen hide their signs? Hide their signs? Yeah, like if we talk about it, we're helping them learn to be better at disguising. And hiding it, like giving away your things, you know, when I came in, it was if you see someone giving away their things or acting a certain way, then they could be, you know, suicidal. So do you think in your opinion that teaching sometimes those type of things has actually made it worse? I don't. My answer is no, I don't. Because research continues to show us that those who talk about suicide or are present with some of those risk factors, they actually want to talk about suicide. And so while it can, and I can't say it, you know, without doubt, there are some airmen that will take that information, say, okay, this is how I can disguise it. But the reality is most people that are thinking about it want to be asked about it, even when they're displaying, even when they're not displaying the signs. And that's what makes it so important to make sure that you are learning people's stories and that you are talking about suicide.  But if I had had children and my child died in an accident, I told my husband put me on watch because it wouldn't matter how reasonable I am and how much I love you, I will want to die and be with my child. So conveying that kind of a message when that's what I was saying, that's part of the challenge is that you're going to have airmen that say, why do we have to do this again? Well, the reason is we get new research and new, new, identify new risk factors every day. So to answer your question, no, I don't think that we're with that by educating people about suicide. I know the direct opposite is true. It is by educating people that we help people understand we can prevent it and we don't want you to die. Is there a, you know, a minority of people that might log that information say, we've got to get better at hiding that? Absolutely. But research shows that most people that are thinking about suicide actually want to be asked about their death, about the possibility they don't people, most people don't want to die by suicide. They want their psychological pain to end and they do not know how to do it. They've come up with this, this conclusion. And we need leaders to look at that person, open the dialogue, even when you don't suspect it's there and say, hey, we all, we all have a breaking point. And if, and if you're there, please come, please talk to me. I would rather work with you through this crisis than lose you. So I hope that answers your question. Okay. All right. And Barksdale person, I really do want to visit with you because I had a great conversation with General Cotton last week and he's doing some taking some new initiatives I'd like to share with you. Okay. So thank you all very much. Enjoy your lunch, enjoy your afternoon speakers. And again, thank you for your time. Bye bye.