Welcome to the Wikimedia Foundation We're giving a talk this evening about failures and selenium tests. We've been a little cheeky and called it epic fail Because it is epic When you do a unit test, it's a very encapsulated. It's a very small thing when something breaks, you know just why it broke When you're doing browser testing, you can have things fail for any number of reasons We're going to explain our system that we use here at the foundation to do browser testing with a number of tools Number of hosts a number of interrelated systems We're also going to discuss we're going to the core of our system is a continuous integration tool called Jenkins We're going to using only the evidence that is presented to us in Jenkins We're going to reason through some of the reasons for some very common browser test failures that I know you've in here in the room have encountered and You've seen these sorts of things and we're going to look at what Jenkins presents us and take it from there We should also mention that It's possible to assert Things about software tests in a number of different ways From the very simple to the very complex in this particular case. We are using the assertion library in our spec it's a very Commonly used Ruby assertion library. We're using the very bare bones aspects of our spec But if you're interested in the particular syntax of anything we see this evening That's where it comes from But our main concern is the system itself and how things fail I'd like to explain a little bit before we jump into the actual Demonstrations of actual failures. I want to talk about the systems in which these tests are running I've made a little diagram here, and I know it's difficult to see online I'm hoping I can explain it well enough to get my point across at the core here We have Jenkins Jenkins is a continuous integration server. It's they used to be called Hudson It's been around a long time Jenkins does anything you give it a set of commands And it issues those commands and it tells you what happens in our particular system When we start a build of selenium tests in Jenkins The first thing that the Jenkins server does is it reaches out to another server where we have our source code repository This is in git. It's managed by a code review system called Garrett Could be anything it could be CVS could be SVN it could be per force it could be whatever you want But you want to keep your tests in a source code control system of some sort We happen to use git and the interface to get is Garrett When our tests kick off on the Jenkins host We have particular versions of Ruby particular versions of selenium Particular version of a wrapper of selenium that we call water web driver a number of other tools This is all completely open by the way you can find all of our configuration live open online It is open to your perusal in the source code system on both Garrett and also on github When the test kicks off We pull over our tests our tests run according to both browser and Target test environment. We'll see more of this in detail later on We send that information off to our friends at Sauce Labs and We tell it to use a particular browser and a particular Test target Sauce Labs spins up a virtual machine on command that is running firefox chrome or some version of internet Explorer And we will point our tests to one of several test environments We have a test environment that we call the beta labs cluster this is our Completely fresh beta labs every few minutes is updated to the latest version of the master of head We also target the test to wiki. That's what we call it It's a peer to the English wikipedia the German wikipedia It is another node on the production wikipedia cluster and we treat this as our staging area We have a number of tests that run against production just sanity checks These are our main test environments right here Are there any questions? So far about what we're doing here anything unfamiliar anyone want to Clarify anything Yes, sir. Thank you quick question. So when you Call Sauce Labs you're using that essentially as a the Jenkins slave at that point correct. No, sir The Jenkins slave is actually a technical term if you you can have multiple instances of the Jenkins servers And one Jenkins will report back to the other Jenkins. We have only one instance of the Jenkins Tool running right now what this means is that Sauce Labs provides an API and You you call that API with a number of different parameters your your user your password your She'll cover no more details than I would you can follow up with him at the time But there's a number of parameters that Sauce Labs API accepts and when you send it a well-formed request It just operates on that request So it is not in that sense a slave to Jenkins It is a two-way communication over the Sauce Labs provided API a virtual environment. Yes Upon issuing this command over the Sauce Labs API Sauce Labs creates on the spot from scratch an entire virtual machine with an operating system I don't even know what else is on there. So let me turn it over to my colleague I'll just start to be quick. So Life is going to my eyes Yes, as Chris said Jenkins slave is a is a is a Jenkins term and The way we run tests so Planning provides a way to run the test on your machine or on the remote machine And we just use this option to run a remote machine You have in that case you need to provide credentials to running on this remote machine and that's it So it's not technically a Jenkins slave, but yes, it behaves like that So the tests are not running on the Jenkins machine, but somewhere else So the format for this evening's thing in a moment. I'll switch the the screen share from from me to to Jenkins itself But we're going to talk about The problem with analyzing browser test failures is that you see a common set of problems and It's often very difficult to tell the root cause the underlying cause for this common set of problems So what we're going to do is use these tools available to us to look at some really common sorts of issues we're going to look at system problems that is Issues somewhere within this entire system where something breaks down After that we're going to look at Timeouts when your application simply freezes or doesn't do the right thing then we're going to take a break Breaks are good After that we're going to talk about some real actual Down-in-the-dirt problems of the test turn up and I'm going to point out that there are a number of people have Acted or tried to over the years to rename Automated tests to call them change detectors We're going to look at a couple of examples where the application being tested changed but it wasn't a bug and then we're going to look at a couple of examples where we found some bugs and We found have found some really important bugs in recent times I will make a note that One thing that I would have really liked to have shown you tonight is a browser specific bug In the past we've had we have one application that fights with Internet Explorer version 9 high E9 And this thing just don't get along unfortunately all of my Examples age off after 60 days So all of the examples that you're going to see tonight have we have incurred within the last 60 days So without further ado if there's any more questions, I'm going to switch over to Jenkins and I will also reiterate that We have a mailing list with about It was something close to a hundred people on it now. It's really high signal. It's really low noise if you're interested in these sorts of issues There's some really really smart people on the you look at lists that would make it wiki media org and just go down the list and find QA It might be worth your time So let me switch over to the Jenkins view and we'll start talking about system thinners So I'm going to start you off with all out thermonuclear heck They said in Dr. Strangelove all of our red builds that you saw there earlier. I also if you have your laptop I encourage you to follow along Um Wmf.ci cloud bees calm This is maybe the worst we've ever seen these red builds. They should have one maybe five failing tests, right? I've got 30 failures in single build 30 failures in a single build And you can see from the name of our Thing this is this is our Firefox build The Firefox build is almost always our most reliable build. It's running against our beta labs test environment Which is our less reliable test environment, but 30 failures. That's just terrible terrible. Let's see what's happening Jenkins gives us all the clues It is all the links to all the things that we need to see What sauce labs tells us Sauce labs you're asking about cucumber earlier Cucumber tells us exactly what's going on in the test We can actually see that I'm out on new pages feed And I should see this link and I should see this link and I should see an icon I should see a button and we can see that it timed out Looking for a really simple link So of course this is I was a little worried when I saw this right off hand So we follow a link and that takes us to sauce lab sauce actually has a really sweet New user interface and you can see Anybody knows what it means when you see the blue page says wiki media foundation error The host is down Beta labs was completely down This was and again without this visual Reinforcement It's really easy to say, you know This is terrible. This is terrible. What do we do 30 test failures in a single build, but it was simply that beta labs was down so we actually went through this entire rigmarole All the way out to here this entire system function Flawlessly until we got to the test environment, but the test environment was hosed so as a result of this and Certain other issues we are actually have begun a project to do far better monitoring of our test environments We should really find out that our test environments down before our browser tests run Make sense So this is this is coming it's not here today But it's coming and this is exactly the reason because we can't afford to fail 30 tests in a row Question yes, sir from comes online question is How often do you run? Okay question How often do you run sanity tests run against production and how do you configure tests to be run at different levels test versus Production doesn't have to be asked right at this moment That's actually fine. I plan to move very slowly tonight. I welcome questions I welcome interruptions feel free This is the the times at which tests are run is highly configurable in Jenkins and just in general As of right now today we run with with a few exceptions we run our test twice a day and one and we run all of them at essentially the same time at the One run goes overnight and then we look at them the first thing in the morning and Another run happens at around lunchtime Pacific time so that we can look at them before we leave for the day and I have an ulterior motive in giving this talk actually I am very much hoping that some of you will actually look at our failed builds I hope that some of you will join the mail list. I hope that some of you will say Why was this build failing? I want would really like people to ask me these questions I would really like people to look at our failed builds From the community and see and think very carefully and ask good questions for me and for Jelko and for the rest of foundation Why are these builds failing and what can we do about it? What can we learn from it? In the very near future Without going into too much detail what we'd like to do very soon is We have begun moving these browser tests into the get repos of the features that they are that are being tested So we are actually right now analyzing the possibility of running a browser test suite after each commit To that particular get repo We have a few technical issues to solve One of the things that we have done here at this all-hands meeting with Jelko and myself and some other people from France and from UK and from other places is talk about how to do this and do this well But as of right now they run as I said twice a day whether it's taste environments production they all run twice a day and they're all analyzed twice a day and When we're really lucky we report about Any other questions? Let me take another example here Mark Holmquist is gonna like this one. Oh I'll also point out that the the root cause of this failure of the entire Test environment being down was it was on a file system that was the file system itself was NFS And we did a really poor job of managing NFS So oh I take it back. I'm gonna take a before I get to some of these I'm gonna look at there's some other really intriguing system errors And we're gonna examine some of the things that you might see out of a Jenkins job Some of these are mysterious, but we have explanations Here we have our we have run tests for mobile applications. There's a gentleman talking about right mobile testing mobile applications These are some of our mobile mobile tests and again, we have our We have our link to sauce labs and we have our Cucumber page steps. This is a very mysterious Error unable to pick a platform To the best of our knowledge, this is actually a glitch in sauce labs The sauce labs is overloaded. It may actually tell you that it can't Find a VM or it can't launch one strangely enough. It seems to have actually done this According to what we have but it's reporting that it did not This is terribly frustrating. This comes in waves. We'll get we'll get this for an hour On you know, like a Friday afternoon or something. I'll show you one more Mysterious one also frustrating See we let it all hang out here at the foundation. We got no secrets We'll show you our mysteries because we like to help Like all the help we can get this one is perplexing the build is red Test result has no failures So what do you do here, right? You've got you've got no cucumber steps What have you done? You've got no cucumber steps You've got no error message Jenkins gives you a thing Jenkins actually is pretty smart As I noted here Jenkins runs on its own host and it runs Ruby and slay them on this host and Jenkins conveniently enough logs the console output For every run of every build and you can see we correctly actually find all of the tests to be run We load them up We attempt to run them Then Jenkins is telling me that the host that it runs on It's going to shell out to execute these tests and whatever happened on that host returned a non-zero result This is again one of the pitfalls of working with hosted services our Jenkins host runs on our service called cloud bees and From time to time the cloud bees host will in fact give us a non-zero result for a shell command again, it's terribly frustrating but Also again with a system this complex. It's something you have to expect from time to time This is my favorite Chats not around is he? Probably good probably wise Isn't this nice? It's red No cucumber. No status. No nothing all it says Failed to determine Failed to determine Okay, anybody want to guess where in the system? Zyalka doesn't count anybody want to guess for this went down hang on a second come back Console output console output is your friend The requested URL returned error 503 service temporary unavailable from Garrett Garrett was down for a while and so if you can't pull your tests You can't run your tests Can't crank up a VM because you've got nothing to feed your API So yeah Garrett was down at a really inconvenient time, but as you can see, you know the A cursory look at the test results doesn't tell you that much right Okay, so these are My grand examples from the last 60 days of system problems These are we've had a problem here. We've had problems here. We've had problems here They're all different problems They all manifest themselves in different ways and what I wanted to demonstrate what I really want to get across is that They can all be analyzed all of the information you need to understand What's going on in these systems is available in Jenkins in your continuous integration Server whether Jenkins could be Travis could be you know, whatever you use all of that information to analyze What's happening should be available to you and if it's not you're probably using the wrong CI server And if you've rolled your own you probably should be using a CI Michael might be living with some of my legacy test runners I don't even know if you guys still running that thing, but oh, I'm so glad Okay, any questions so far. I'm about to switch to a different Subject, but I wanted to make sure that you understood that this when we run these tests It is an entire system that we're exercising. Are there any questions about what we've seen so far? Awesome. I'll move on to the next Here we go It's dropped. Okay. Here we go. We have an application called upload wizard Mark Holmquist has worked on upload wizard. He says funny things about it and we have to develop in the room We have two of the upload wizard developers You can see we have a typical thing a timed out right and we know from experience at this point that Timeouts who knows what a timeout means right? Anything could happen Anything could be broken This is where sauce comes in enormously handy the first thing you see when you click on the link to sauce labs is the last Page that the test saw So here what you can see the very last page. It's kind of hard to see here But the very last page of the test saw is a spinner Here's upload winners wizard just spinning spinning away spinning away. This is a real failure But it's not a real bug This application uploads files to our commons thing if it's a large file It'll take a while if it's a slow network It will take a while and again the internet itself plays a factor here because you're doing all these hops among all these hosts on the internet and Timeouts are a fact of life, but timeouts and upload wizard are a big fact of life So I do have a test for upload wizard. I'm not that fond of them because they fail a lot This is something that Jocko and I talk about but we haven't actually done anything about yet It's on our list and I have a similar example of another Also, I should also mention that if you're if you're interested in the source code for these tests The upload wizard test is rather a masterpiece if I say so myself It does some really remarkable things. It was one of the first tests that Jocko works on Worked on it logs in with a secret password It generates a image file on the fly of a random nature. It uploads this file. It checks that the upload worked It's really a rather remarkable browser test because it involves a file system and it runs consistently on Linux Mac and Windows So it's pretty slick if you're interested in these sorts of things the source code for for the upload wizard test is really remarkable and Jocko is the architect of that Does some fancy DOM manipulation as I recall that's the Yes, it does We have another another test because this is another feature that breaks from time to time We have the ability if you bring up a page in Wikipedia you can download that page as a PDF and We have in the past broken this feature pretty often So we have an automated test for it and it's it runs most of the time pretty well But we go to the sauce labs and again we find the very last page that we see says Rendering As I recall this test goes to a random page if we pick a page that's particularly large The test will time out. We probably should not send it to a random page There's so much refactoring as you've seen in in our builds a lot of our builds are green I mean a lot of our builds are red today and again if you if you have your laptops with you I was hoping at the end of this session That perhaps people who have particular interest you are welcome to surf around find red builds look at the problems Look at the histories We have the architects of those tests here in the room and the many of the developers on these applications here in the room as well So with that I'm going to take a short break Let people get up get a beer move around Ask any questions off the side if you want surf the cloud B side if you want And when we come back in say 10 minutes people online Okay We'll take a very short break five minutes and We'll come back and we'll talk about detecting actual change in the application And we'll talk about detecting actual bugs in real applications over the last 60 days. So in just a few minutes So for those following online, we'll now there's no way to pause the video as far as I know So we'll turn down the volume and in five minutes sharp. We will start again. Thank you


Hello and welcome to the Communist Manifesto for Personal Finance, the only program that teaches you how to seize your means of production. I'm Comrade Rourke, and let me be the first to congratulate you.  You've navigated the Mad Max Hellscape of high school. Perhaps some of you have even graduated from college. Hopefully you've moved out of your parents' house and are now gainfully employed. You're finally free to make your own way in the world, which means for the first time ever you get to file your own taxes. Because you're also no longer dependent on your parents' tax return. Upon learning that you had to file your own taxes, your first thought was probably No one ever taught me how to do that.  But now the day of reckoning is at hand, and in your desperation you have turned to the last place in the world you should ever go to for reliable information. The Internet. If you're watching this video in the hope that we'll explain how to fill out a 1040, unfortunately we have to do something communism hasn't done yet. Disappoint you. There are a few reasons why we won't be going into that much detail about the 1040. First, the 1040 which by the way is the form you need to file with the IRS by April 15th is simultaneously the most boring, confusing, and infuriating item ever created by the human race. Describing every detail of the 1040 would be the equivalent of bringing you face to face with an indescribable cosmic horror, and it would most assuredly drive you mad. And the basic information we're going to cover in this program might drive you to psychosis. Second, we don't want to go into too much detail about the tax code because every few years Congress gets together, strips naked, and performs a satanic hokey pokey while a goat is disemboweled in the center of the rotunda. The great whore of Babylon, known also as Mitch McConnell, divines these goats innards and proclaims his visions in ancient Aramaic, which is then translated into binary. And that's how Congress changes our tax code. Finally, we don't want to go into too much detail about taxes because we are not tax experts. We know as much about taxes as Congress which is to say very little. Our main goals for this program are to tell you about the best free methods for filing your taxes, give you a basic idea how federal income tax works, and explain what your tax refund really means. If you need help with your individual taxes, there are free resources you can use. And this brings us to the most valuable information in this program. You don't need to pay for tax help. At the beginning of every year, we see a lot of advertisements for tax software. Now, since the federal tax code is a Lovecraftian nightmare that drives rational people insane, we recommend using tax software. However, you don't have to pay for tax software. If you make $72,000 or less per year, you can get the software for free. And you can get it from the IRS if you visit their website at irs.gov. Of course you may not be computer savvy or you may want an actual flesh and blood certified volunteer to help you with your taxes. If that's the case, you can also get this help for free. The IRS has a program called Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or VITA. The VITA program is a group of IRS certified volunteers who can help you file your taxes for free. The main requirement for using this program is that your annual income has to be $57,000 or less. So apologies to all our millionaire viewers. The VITA program won't be much help. But also, what are you doing here? Do you not see the picture of Karl Marx? I mean, what are you expecting to find? If you aren't a self-loathing capitalist pig millionaire, you can find out how to use the VITA program by visiting the IRS's website. We'll post a link to the VITA program in the description down below. As you can see, if you're a working class proletariat with relatively simple taxes, you have free resources to help you file your return. And you should use these resources, whether it's the free software available at irs.gov or the VITA program. But what you should never do is hire a tax prepper. First of all, a tax prepper is not certified by the IRS. They're just a person who rented an office in a strip mall. Second, and as communists we never like to generalize, but 98% of tax preppers are hucksters who overcharge you to do the same thing you could do for free just by visiting the IRS's website. So again, if you need to file your taxes, use the free software available at irs.gov or find the nearest VITA program. Now if all you needed was for someone to tell you where you could get free and reliable tax help, you can probably stop watching this program now.  But for the rest of you deranged masochists, we're going to plunge into the abyss and explain in the broadest possible terms how federal income tax works. But in order to do that, we have to do something Congress never will. Simplify the tax code. Greetings most big bunny. Greetings comrade roark. Are you okay? You look stressed. I have to file my taxes for the first time. Have you tried using the free software available at irs.gov? I don't have a computer. Well, why don't I help you out? Let's start at the beginning. There was darkness. Then the older ones came and brought more darkness. No, not that beginning. Look, let's first answer the question. What is a tax? The technical definition is that taxes are transfers of private resources, your resources to the government. That makes sense. Of course the anarcho-libertarian definition is that taxes are the government extorting you with the threat of state-approved violence. That also makes sense. Regardless of the definition, the fact is 98% of us have to pay taxes. And taxes come in a variety of forms. What we're talking about today is income tax. Income tax? Income tax is when the government takes a percentage of your annual income. Is that what these forms are for? So I can pay my income tax? No, but also yes. You see Bolshevik Bunny, you already paid your income tax. I did. Yes. When you started working at, uh, who's your employer? Oink Brothers Agricultural Industries. Right. So last year, when you started working for the capitalist pigs, you had to fill out something called a W-4. The W-4 is the form that tells the U.S. government how much money it should tax from your income. Comrade Rourke, I have a question. Yes, Bolshevik Bunny? Um, are we in the United States? Are we in Soviet Russia? Also, what year is it? It's never been clearly established, and it's probably best we don't get hung up on it. Okay. Moving on. The federal government used your W-4 to withhold taxes from your paycheck. So you already paid your income tax for last year. Then why do I have to fill out and turn in this 1040 to the IRS by April 15th? Because the 1040 is what you need for... Section 2, filing your taxes. By April 15th, you need to file your taxes. The 1040 is how you do that. Filing your taxes basically consists of three steps. One, declaring your income. Two, applying your deductions. And three, finding your tax rate. Understand? No. Well, why don't we start with the first step? Subsection 2A, declaring your income. In order to start your taxes, you need an important form from your employer called a W-2. The W-2 has two important pieces of information. One, how much income you earned last year, and two, how much the government took in taxes. So let me get this straight. The W-4 tells my employer how much it should withhold from my paycheck to give to the government. Yes. The W-2 is the form my employer sent me, and it tells me how much money I made and how much income tax I paid last year. Exactly. And the 1040 is the form I sent to the IRS to file my taxes. Correct. Are those all the forms I'd need for my taxes? Absolutely f*****g not. There's no way we could cover every single form used by the IRS without driving someone insane. We're just talking about these three forms because they're the main ones you need. Now Bolshevik Bunny, on your W-2, it should say what your annual income was. Looks like I earned 500 potatoes last year. An above average yield. So on the beginning of your 1040, you would declare 500 potatoes as your income. 500 potatoes. Now that you've declared your income, we move on to the next step. Subsection 2B, applying your deductions. What are deductions? A deduction is an amount of money subtracted from your taxable income. It's basically money that doesn't get taxed. Understand? No. Of course not. Let's use an example. Last year you earned 500 potatoes.  Now the standard deduction is the deduction the government gives everybody.  Yes. Let's say, hypothetically, the standard deduction is 200 potatoes. On your 1040, you would subtract 200 from the 500 potatoes you declared, which equals 300 potatoes. This is your taxable income. And now that we've found your taxable income, we move on to the third step. Subsection 2C, finding your tax rate. This is the IRS's hypothetical potato tax table. Bolshevik Bunny, last year you earned 500 potatoes. So the government took 20% of your income or 100 potatoes. But after we applied your deductions, we found that your taxable income was really 300 potatoes. So, looking at the table, we see you only owed the government 12% of your income or 36 potatoes. So, on the 1040, I first have to declare my income from last year. Yes. Subtract any deductions from my declared income to find my taxable income. Yes. Then I have to look up a tax rate, apply it to my taxable income, and find out how much I really owe the government. Yes. And that's all there is to filing my taxes? Absolutely f*****g not. Why's that? Bolshevik Bunny, what we just went over and we cannot stress this enough, is a very simplified version of income tax. We left out a lot of details you really need a certified expert to help with. Don't you think you should try and go into more detail?  No, I wouldn't. Yes, you would. No, I wouldn't. Yes, you would. Yes, I would. No, you wouldn't. Yes, I would. No, you wouldn't. Yes, I would. And I'm going to prove it by explaining every last detail of the tax code to you. Ain't I a stinker? So at the beginning of the 1040, you first have to calculate your adjusted gross income. You do this by adding any extra income that wasn't on your W-2, such as taxable interest or dividends or capital gains from the stock market. Of course, you can also subtract things from your adjusted gross income, such as student loan interest. All of this can be found on Schedule 1 of the IRS tax code. And we haven't mentioned anything about credits. You can get a credit for owning a home, having a child, or paying a foreign tax. You can find out how to get these credits on Schedule 3. That's absolutely right. Even a woe's eggs to not an IFP makes it more. Let's spot next turn. Point is, you shouldn't fill out your 1040 by yourself. You should either use the free software available at IRS.gov, or find the nearest VETA program if you make $57,000 or less. So now that we figured out how much you really owe in taxes, we can discuss Section 3, Tax Refunds. Now, going back to our very simplified example. After we applied our hypothetical, standard deduction, and found your real tax rate, we figured out that you only owed the government 36 potatoes. But last year, you paid 100 potatoes in taxes. Now, we also used the 1040 to figure out your tax refund. Since you only needed to pay 36 potatoes, we would subtract 36 from 100 and get 64. Your tax refund, Bolsterick Bunny, is 64 potatoes. Are you saying I'm getting 64 potatoes this year? Yes. Whoopee! I get a bonus from the government! That's not what that means. But you just said the government is paying me potatoes. The government is refunding you potatoes. Those potatoes were yours already. A tax refund does not mean the government is giving you bonus money. A tax refund means you gave the government free money. How? So, in our episode about credit, we explained that creditors give out loans so they can collect interest when you pay them back. Remember? Yeah. Last year, when you paid too much in taxes, you gave the government a loan. Now it's paying you back, but without interest. Are you saying it's better to get a small tax return? I'm saying it's better to give the government as little free money as possible. How do I do that? Well there are ways to lower your taxes. A lot of them are illegal, but we have a few legal means at our disposal. Like what? Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to talk about your 401k. Bolsterick Bunny, when you started working at your job, did they mention anything about contributing to a 401k? I think so. I'm not sure. My job orientation was boring, and I was stoned. Okay, we'll put a pin in that. What I'm getting at Bolsterick Bunny is that depending on which evil, soul-sucking corporation you work for, they may offer you a 401k, which is a retirement plan you can contribute to. How does contributing to my 401k affect my taxes? When you put money into a traditional 401k, your contributions are pre-tax. Pre-tax?  So, 401k contributions are like deductions. Absolutely. Let's go back to our example. Last year, you didn't contribute anything to your retirement. So the government took 100 potatoes from your income and you overpaid in taxes. If instead you had contributed 100 potatoes to your 401k, you would have lowered your taxable income to just 400 potatoes. Wouldn't I have lowered my tax rate, too? Precisely. Instead of owing 20% of 500 potatoes, you would owe 16% of 400 potatoes. So already, you saved income in taxes. Plus, historically, retirement accounts grow at an average annual rate of 7%. So, theoretically, if you put 100 potatoes into your 401k, you would have earned an extra 7. Wow! 7 whole potatoes! Yes. And the potatoes in your 401k will compound over time. How would potatoes compound in a 401k? Don't question the metaphor. Point is, by contributing to your retirement, you can reduce the amount of interest-free income you loan the government. But Comrade Rourke, we're communists, aren't we?  Then if we're communists, don't we want to fully support the federal government with our tax dollars? Five military coups later. Uh, thank you, Bolshevik Bunny. That was the funniest joke I've heard in a long time. I wasn't joking. Oh, you were serious. Okay, maybe I was wrong to laugh at your civic attitude. After all, there are excellent government programs we should support. Plus, we communists may need to exploit, I mean, encourage that attitude when our fiscal policies turn America into a workers' paradise. I guess the best way to determine if the federal government deserves our interest-free money is to see how it spent our tax dollars. Let's see here. Let's see, in 2019, the federal government spent over $2 trillion on entitlements. Well, a lot of baby boomers do need financial support after squandering their parents' money. $654 billion was spent on the Department of Defense. I mean, how else is our military going to overpay for shoddy equipment? Ba-ba-ba. Oh, it looks like we paid $423 billion on the national debt. Bolshevik Bunny, how long will it take you to pay off your debt to capitalist pig? Probably until I'm dead. Probably after. Anyway, you also get to pay off the government's debt. Oh, I'm sorry, just the interest on the debt. And it looks like the remaining $1.2 trillion was spent mostly on corporate subsidies to capitalist pigs. So, Bolshevik Bunny, I guess it comes down to your personal preference. You can either reduce your taxes by contributing as much as possible to retirement, then retire early and use your resources to support worthy organizations. Or you can give an interest-free loan to the government and, by the transit of property, Monsanto. Either way, the choice is yours. I'm Comrade Rourke and you are the Revolution. Produced in collaboration with Fort Collins Public Media, if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for future episodes, please email us at communistfinance at gmail.com or follow us on instagram at comrade Rourke. Hi, what are you and arms doing? We're discussing taxes. Do you need help with your taxes capitalist pig? My taxes? Ah, the middle class is dying.


Good morning, Highline Familia. My name is Doris Martinez. She heard her pronouns and services director of the Center for Cultural and Inclusive Excellence. Welcome to today's unity week program massing her incarceration by the numbers and a formerly incarcerated student panel. Names to numbers. Today we're going to do a land and space acknowledgement. We'd like to take a moment to acknowledge all indigenous and First Peoples of the land and space in which we live and breathe. For our community at Highline, we recognize that we are an occupied the Womish Coast Salish Muckleshoot and Puyallup lands. We thank all relations and tribes today as we hold space as a community. With each of us joining from different areas, we also invite you to reflect and think indigenous and First People of the land, and which you are coming from. Thank you. And now I would like to pass on the virtual mic to the lovely Harold Brooke, who will introduce this morning's presenters. Thank you for me for joining us today. Good morning Highline. My name is Harold Brooke and I'm one of your reference librarians. It's an honor and a privilege to be here with you today. Let's take a moment to soak in this year's theme abolition as healing, liberating our community abolition to end or stop healing to become healthy again, liberation to free or release community to be in a group. When you read this theme that can present itself as paradoxical, but when we reflect and think of how we exist in the world. There are many experiences of living in a world of systems that are complex and sometimes self contradictory. We invite you to reflect, listen and engage in this week of programs and connect with this theme. This is the second year that unity week has been virtual. We've all learned to adjust to be in community to care to survive and are finding moments to breathe. I'll introduce JJ. James Jackson is a formerly incarcerated college graduate who works as a statewide education re entry navigator and re entry scholars program director, serving the South Puget Sound and Peninsula counties from the evergreen state college in Washington state. His work provides outreach into prisons, work releases and community corrections offices recruiting currently and formerly incarcerated students for Washington states public colleges. His duties include college navigation, student support campus and institutional education. He's a student first at Highline College, and then at the evergreen state college, James held several different leadership positions. He's currently working with community partners in the evergreen education coalition for justice involves students students to expand evergreen at Green Hill School for boys, and a capacity building program to bring evergreen communities to Washington state correctional centers. His ultimate goal is to be a learning guide of sociology in an evergreen prison education program. Welcome JJ and panelists. We are so happy you're joining us for unity through diversity week 2021. Our program will go until 1055 when we'll take a short break. Take it away JJ. Now you're muted buddy. The dreaded mute button. Oh, it's so funny. So good morning Highline community it's so good to come back I am Highline alumni and I have have so many special connections to the community up there. And it is just, it's an honor to be invited to come and present to you all today. And so I'm going to open up my PowerPoint here in the share screen and get this ready so bear with me just for a second. Right. And so are we looking good panelists you know what this is supposed to look like. Yes. All right. And so my name is James Jackson. I am a formerly incarcerated college graduate, and I currently serve as a community reentry education navigator. What that means is that I help students who are incarcerated and students who are transitioning into our campus communities around the straight, the state with college navigation, continued supports, and I am also responsible for educating our communities around the issues that impact incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and students to be more specific.  Okay, so today, I'm going to be sharing with you a presentation called mass incarceration by the numbers, and then we will move into a formerly incarcerated student panel. So I, I always like to open these up with some acknowledgments and this this land acknowledgement I doors shared a great one for you up there a high line and this one is a land acknowledgement for the land that evergreen state college sits on so we begin our time together today by acknowledging the indigenous people of the medicine creek treaty, whose land on which the college stands, we acknowledge the squawks and people who are the traditional custodians of this land, and pay respect to the elders past and present of the squawks and island tribe. We also have a justice acknowledgement that was written by one of our professors at evergreen, and it's just really, really, really powerful. So, just this acknowledgement and we want to acknowledge stolen lives, lives ended too soon by what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls an unequal distribution of premature death. In particular, we want to pay homage to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others who have lost their lives to the bigotry that leads to ongoing personal mob and state violence. We want to pay homage to the many others who have died prematurely as a consequence of these structures. We started to hear it said about five years ago as a part of the movement for black lives, and we may need to remind ourselves for a little while yet. When black lives matter, everybody lives better. And so I always have to kind of take a moment of silence, after reading those, because I really feel them. Okay, this here is our language statement. When looking to engage with system impacted students from this marginalized population, please refrain from using stigmatizing language. Words such as offender, inmate, felon, ex-felon, and convicts suggest that people are no more than their conviction. Those negative labels only serve to dehumanize, retraumatize, and retraumatize the students we serve. We recommend humanizing language such as incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, returning citizen and justice-involved people, which centers the person, not the conviction. All right, so now we'll kind of get into the body of the presentation, and let me adjust something here so that my notes aren't covered. All right, an overview of mass incarceration. Today, we will barely scratch the surface of the numbers and how we got here. This presentation is intended to give you an overview of mass incarceration, and for those who want to dig deeper, I will leave you with some resources to do so. So we're going to look at the whole pie, so those are the numbers. We're going to look at a snapshot on how we got here, some popular analysis. Prison education and reentry reduced recidivism and formerly incarcerated, and then we'll move into the formerly incarcerated student panel. All right, so the whole pie 2020. Let's start with the numbers. Excuse me. Let's start with the numbers. According to prisonpolicy.org, the whole pie 2020, there are 2.3 million people incarcerated in jails, prisons, and detention centers in the United States. In the pie, you will notice the breakdown with the biggest slices going to state prisons and local jails. Next in order would be youth confinement and immigration detention. Sorry, I'll move some stuff around on my screen again. It's in the way. Excuse me while I get situated. Sorry about that. So in the pie, you will notice the breakdown with the biggest slices going to state prisons and local jails. Next in order youth confinement and immigration detention. In this instance, as of 2012, the US imprisonment rate was 700 people per 100,000. It is still the highest in the world today at 655 per 100,000. The number of prison stations with similar per are below 200 per 100,000, and many are below 100 people per 100,000 us and premise prisonment rates for black men as of 2015, or 2,613 per 100,000. Let those numbers sink in. Right. Probation and parole. According to this slice of the pie, there are 7 million people on community supervision in this country. Most people who return to prison do so not because they commit new crimes, but for technical violations of their probation or parole. In prison state transitioning people are released with $40 in a bus ticket. Many times conditions of release consist of weekly mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, UA so your analysis and probation check in appointments. Transition transitioning people are expected to find housing and employment as part of their conditions. If they have no family support. Imagine trying to keep up with those expectations. When they don't, they may be returned to prison or jail. They may be returned to prison or jail for violating conditions of their supervision. Right, so it's almost like a setup because if you don't have strong family support, and you're just kind of throwing out there you go right into homelessness and everything. It can be really hard to overcome those barriers. Okay. All right. All right, numbers by the millions. People impacted are not just those who landed jails, prison or detention centers. They are their family members and communities. People with felon status end up serving time behind bars. Regardless, they are still cast with the fellow label system impact people are those who have been to jail or prison. They are also those convicted of a felony who are not sentenced to confinement. And also their family members, I would even broaden that definition to whole communities who are impacted by the criminal justice system.  I mean, a lot of the men have been siphoned out of those communities right, which just adds to already, adds to the economic issues that are already impacting these communities and the right the most fastest rising number currently is women. Women are the being incarcerated at a higher rate than ever, and then anybody else at this moment in time. Okay, US incarceration compared to other countries. The United States holds 5% of the world's population yet we hold 25% of the world's prison population. I ask you, does this mean we are a less moral country whose citizens are prone to crime, or with this question be better framed as a socio economic one. While there may be a morality question here as you will learn that question lies in the laps of the policy and lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle. And we'll now go in and what kind of contextualize some of these numbers. With racial justice continuing to be the most important social issue of our times. It is a wonder that we don't hear more about mass incarceration. After all, as Michelle Alexander explains in her book the new Jim Crow mass incarceration is the continuation of the bondage of black bodies, the evolved form of Jim Crow segregation, and the continued continuation of racial cast in the United States. And so I just want you all to kind of take a second and look at this graph. And think about what jumps out at you. I do not want to overlook the number of white people impacted by the system because they do get caught up. Other whites make up the greatest percent of people incarcerated in the US, the gross racial disparities are evident. Is this because black people are predisposed to criminal behavior, or could something else be taking place here. The facts are that racial groups commit crimes at roughly the same rates. Why are the disparities so great. Right. And so I asked these questions, not necessarily for people for you to answer or whatever, but to get this marinating right and for you to maybe get curious about this and to look into it to yourselves right and I will give you some, some references and stuff where if you're interested you could start that research. This is probably the most scary evolution of mass incarceration that is currently happening. So in 2018 Michelle Alexander updated the preface in her book the new Jim Crow. There she identifies the next steps in the evolution of mass incarceration in the United States as the digital prison or surveillance control. Michelle Alexander explains and I quote while you may be set free from jail and expensive monitoring device likely will be shackled to your ankle. A GPS tracking device provided by a private company that may charge you around 300 per month. Even now for corporations earn a combined 200 million in revenue for their E monitoring services. While free, your movement may be limited making it difficult or impossible to get a job, get or keep a job, attend school, care for your kids or visit family members. Entire communities could become trapped in a in digital prisons that keep them locked out of the neighborhoods where jobs and opportunities can be found. That's pretty scary stuff. Alright, and so how did we get here. In her book the new Jim Crow Arthur Michelle Alexander argues that gains one in the civil rights movement unleashed a wave of white resentment and fear that led to a political backlash. He outlines how conservatives starting with the Nixon administration played into the racial fears of whites to bring them into the GOP. Due to the winds of the civil rights movement and a political correctness of color blindness politicians could no longer use explicitly racist strategy. Instead they use the rhetoric of crime. When referring to black people, while never mentioning race. There has been an understanding among whites evolved that criminal meant young black male. The racism of white folks was crucial to making mass incarceration, a viable system. On the other hand, Ruth Gilmore in her book golden good gulag identifies the loss of us manufacturing jobs as corporations looked overseas and south for cheap labor causing unemployment rates to soar in cities with large African American communities. Compound this with the rise of neoliberal policy making that led to the shrinking social where welfare nets, what, excuse me, that led to shrinking welfare nets and I got a little note in here the cold part is the same policy makers expanded corporate welfare at the same time while shrinking the security nets for the people, while resources for social programs went away, more dollars were directed towards prisons and jails. To exasperate things politicians began a propaganda campaign claiming that crime was out of control in America, while promoting law and order policies, when the crime rate was actually in decline. In the punishment imperative by Todd clear and Natasha Frost, the authors argue that most important the most important reasons for mass incarceration is philosophical. As the country moved away from a philosophy of rehabilitation rehabilitation to one of punishment. The political and public will became more punitive, rather than providing second chances through educational programs job training and substance abuse programs, the public called for a system that would incapacitate. They were prisoners criminals who broke the law they were unworthy of second chances. The perspective was not only about criminal prosecution, it is about political disenfranchisement prison gerrymandering shifted political power away from urban districts, where most black communities are located to mostly white rural areas. There is a familiar theme running through all the text I have highlighted in this slide. The disproportionate impacts on black and brown communities and our poor whites, as compared to middle and upper class whites. They all provide credible analysis as to how we got to the place of hosting the most complete social control system mass incarceration, the world has ever seen. A powerful tool and politicians wielded it to perfection by manufacturing a the social and political will for a drug war that is little more than a race war primary primarily pointed at black communities, a class war pointed at all poor communities, regardless of race. That was a long sentence sorry. Over the last 40 years this country went on a prison building bench like never seen before in world history. Politicians on both sides of political aisle created policies and laws that helped them to fill their new prisons. It's funny because every time like, you know, I read these notes and look at these slides and stuff. It's just impactful. Doesn't get any easier. So the war on drugs. I thought this slide I threw this slide in because I thought it relates so much with how we got here as it highlights the political shenanigans mass racism and media tactics employed to gain support for mass incarceration. So I just want you all to take a second and read this slide. Because a lot of times people academics and stuff. They will talk about mass incarceration and the consequences to the communities as unintended. Right. But these things were very intentional and this is evidence of that. And I'm going to check the chat in case because I don't have it up. See if I'm missing anything. Think I'm okay. Yeah, looks okay. I missed anything. And so we'll go on to the next slide here. All right, so the new cast 40, there are 46,000 collateral consequences to a kept felony conviction. A felony conviction or the scarlet f relegates people to perpetual second class citizenship, as Michelle Alexander puts it in her book the new Jim Crow. She makes reasonable arguments based in the empirical evidence that the fellow label is responsible for a new cast system in the United States. She highlights in her big book that while crime rates continue to drop prison populations are stable. The main driver of this stability is recidivism, high recidivism rates can be directly attributed to barriers are to the barriers erected by the felon label. Even if a person never returns to prison they are pushed to the margins trapped in poverty condemned by society for millions of formerly incarcerated system impacted people trapped on the lower rungs of society. This is their reality. And so, you know that this right here is really important to understand because the scar that those consequences just continue to relegate people to to the barriers right to marginalize them. It's just really hard to overcome that and get back into society and get get into an economically viable position. And so it leads to recidivism recidivism versus education as a formerly incarcerated person myself post secondary education while incarcerated show me that I was capable of learning and could be a successful student. I could be the seeds of hope that maybe I could do something different with my life. Due to circumstances I was unable to complete a degree while incarcerated. But when I got out I knew that I wanted to return to school, and that I did. I firmly believe that it is education and the hope for a better way of life that sustained my reentry. All of the bullet points outlined in this slide for me have proven to be true. Today I have an education that led to a career in student affairs that provides a living wage. The best part about it is I get to support others with the shared experience of poverty, racism, and incarceration to break the chains of poverty, the shackles of racism, and the cycles of recidivism that are generational. Excuse me, the cycles of recidivism and generational incarceration. When people ask me what do I think is the best tool in reducing recidivism. My answer is always education because knowing is half of the battle. Right and the numbers. The numbers here. It's actually 42 to 70 some percent, and that goes by a degree attainment level. And so, you know, students that are getting their as their chances of recidivate recidivating are reduced to like 15% students that gain their bachelor's degree, it drops to 5%. And people who are getting master's degrees it's not even register full right so about 0% of those people return to prison so education is a proven tool to combat mass incarceration. Okay, so, like I said, that I was going to leave you with some resources. This presentation barely scratches the surface as to the depth of mass incarceration and its socio economic ramifications. Do your own research. These resources are only the tip of the iceberg. Take a swim upstream by referencing the resources in these materials where you will find treasure a treasure chest of information. And so, on here, you know, the new Jim Crow of course Michelle Alexander has done some amazing work there, and it's a well research book with loads of references. The same with the golden gulag by Ruth Gilmore. Ruth Gilmore is a political economist.  The punishment imperative by Todd clear and Natasha Frost right that they, they also have their take on it but it's all well researched again. Understanding mass incarceration by James Kilgore is probably the most straightforward text there, and it just lays everything it's pretty amazing text to, and it just lays everything out very straightforward and very understandable. James Kilgore was a formerly incarcerated person he has recently passed away human targets by Victor Rios right. That is a really important book that is addresses the school to prison pipeline. Victor Rios himself was somebody who just barely made it out of the gangs and stuff in LA. And there's a chapter in that called the labeling height that talks about, you know, students as young as kindergarten start, start being labeled prison policy.org. This website right here is the information is continued continually updated, and there's just a plethora of articles, text in there that you can look into. Also, you can sign up, and then we'll send you updates continued updates with new when new things are happening as well. Vera Institute for Justice has done a lot of great work around mass incarceration, as well. And so those are, those are some great resources for those of you who are interested in learning more. All right, so next we will move into our formerly incarcerated student panel names to numbers. And so, if we can hear I'm going to, I'm going to stop sharing my screen here now. And if we can go ahead and bring in our panelists. And we could move into the panel piece. All right. Hello panelists. Welcome to unity week at Highline and if we can just start with you to introduce your names and pronouns and we can start with that with the first question I guess just introduce yourselves. And let's start with Gail let's start with Gail today and to just introduce yourself your names and pronouns and the question would be, excuse my phone here. Did you begin your education during our post incarceration. Okay. Hi, I'm gal for share. I go by she her pronouns. Um, so very brief to a very complicated story. I was incarcerated at 15. I did 25 years with a life sentence and due to new laws in Washington state I was released about a year and a half ago. And as far as my education, the first 10 years that I was at Washington correction Center for women they didn't really have any opportunities, especially those for us with a really long sentence and so about 2010 a small group of us some very dedicated we created a nonprofit program called freedom education appugiate sound known as pets. And at first we started we just had this desire for something better and something more for our lives and the culture and the institution and we were able to get volunteers that would come in and provide professors from different places that would, you know, provide classes for us and we didn't get any accreditation for it in the beginning but we started working really hard with other institutions and we're able to eventually get accreditation and build a program and right before I was released they were finally able to create a BA program there and I just really learned that education is really what gave me a voice and helped me, you know, find the direction I needed. Thank you, Gail. Let's go ahead and go with Catalina next. My name is Carolina lambda and I go by she her pronouns and so. Yes, my education started in in incarceration, I did a environmental based program through sustainability and prisons project. Where actually those certificates transferred eventually to the Evergreen State College. For credits. And so I really attribute that program with, you know, all the success that I've had in in reentry that was the pivotal point for me and set me up so. Thank you, Catalina and something that I forgot to say earlier is like the point of the mass incarceration presentation in this panel right is to get folks to begin to address, you know, you got to get educated and then begin to address any of your subconscious or subconscious bias for formerly incarcerated people and to understand that it's not about crime so much as it is a socio economic question as I stated earlier in the presentation and so I just wanted to restate that and we'll go ahead and go with Paris next. Did you begin your education during or post incarceration. Hello everyone, my name is Paris Miller. I was formerly incarcerated just completed a 21 year sentence. And I've, I completed, I started my, my education and like my second year of being incarcerated. You know I had an epiphany that basically I needed to invest my time into something that was, I would get a return on it. And therefore, you know I started education and it became my rehabilitation. Thank you Paris. Jordan. Yeah, so I'm Jordan. I just got out not that long ago after spending about the entirety of my 20s inside. And basically for me. I've always been a learner not really necessarily through school and like prior to incarceration. I learned I just learned a lot of stuff that didn't help me, and that didn't help anybody. And basically, during my incarceration, I took it upon myself to start self studying and learning. And basically, I just would start taking the different classes and programs that were offered that I felt like would help me. And so I just basically did that throughout my whole time. So, you know, all of us who are formerly incarcerated that are in this presentation today. We started to learn, or we started our educational pathways while and while incarcerated. And I can speak for myself like I said earlier I know it gave me hope and believe that like things could be a little bit different from me for me and so one of the things that I wanted to and I'm kind of going a little bit off script script here so Gail. What is it that you did that was so amazing this year, as far as your internship. So, um, I've just learned through years before I was released I learned the impact of legislation right and I know that there's a lot of people out there that want to, you know, implement change and stuff like that but sometimes they really don't understand the way policies are actually implemented within the prison or in these different ways of trying to restructure sentencing.  So in November, I was able to apply for a very competitive internship program at the state capital, and I did not think that I was going to get accepted and the more I was able to follow through with some of the steps of the application and the interviews and the different things I started recognizing like hey I may really have a shot again, you know a lot of these other students that are applying that come from like Stanford and all this. Yeah, and so not only was I chosen out of a mass amount of people that applied but I was put in with Senator Jeannie Darnell's office and if those of you who don't know who she is. She is the leader in sentence reform and juvenile rehabilitation and human services and she's the senator and to come in so I got to work with her in her small office for four months and got to really understand the challenges of passing laws and legislation and what needs to really be done because sometimes people just don't understand what's needed and they don't understand like that we're human and that yes we may have made mistakes but there are so many of us they get released that give real impact back to our communities and so it's definitely something that I plan on pursuing more now that session has ended and yeah it's been a lot to me. Amazing gal thank you for sharing that and congratulations on all that you have accomplished in the short time since you've gotten out and started going to school amazing work. Catalina what where are you at right now and what and tell us a little bit about. Also I would like to hear about your job as well so you're your act what you're doing academically in your job. Yeah, so I graduated with my undergrad from the Evergreen State College and I'm five weeks away now, currently from my master's in public administration so after I did my undergrad I, I followed into the MPH track. Also, you know how how Gail said, a lot of, I'm really interested in in policy right and all of that and so I have three communities that I really are my focus areas which are, you know justice impacted people, you know whether they're incarcerated after like that whole realm disabilities communities and also some immigration. And those are, for me, first and second people impact impacts right and I, you know I truly believe that people that have those impacts really have the power with their voice to make the most impact right and change systemically. So, and I'm currently in my role. You're on meat. Currently in my role sorry about that I work at the Office of the correction on beds, and I'm the early resolution community relations manager. And so I, we work a lot of systemically and also individually on cases that and complaints that incarcerated people are bringing to us and we have oversight to the 12 presidents and work releases in the state of Washington. Amazing work Catalina and congratulate relations on your upcoming graduation with your masters and public administration. Um, and Jordan, um, let's hear a little bit about your academic and career pathway but I also want to hear a little bit I want you to share a little bit with the audience on the work that you're doing with iris steinhoff. So right now I'm a full time student at evergreen. And so I'm working on two books, and I'm in two of iris classes right now one's called, well they're both under reimagining community safety and so one is basically all seminar. And, you know, our feedback with that and then the other is basically student originated studies. And in doing so, I'm working on two books right now. One is justice involved. And the other one is a philosophy consciousness studies type book. And basically, yeah I my career pathway at this point is I feel like I've come to a place where a lot of what I've been studying and what I've been spending my time on is all kind of coalescing and I feel that I look at at the world as a whole now rather than like me versus it right which is how I think a lot of us look at it for a long, long time. And so basically, my idea is like my books are my way of giving back and trying to help. Because, like I said, I don't feel like we can help ourselves without helping each other and vice versa. Jordan, thank you and an amazing work and and I appreciate you as one of our great deep thinkers and one of one of the things that I didn't mention here is all four of the students on the panel are evergreen students. And, and I'm evergreen and highlight alumni. And so just thought I should throw that out there. I work steinhoff the faculty that I'm that I've talked about with Jordan has done a lot of teaching in prisons and has been very very instrumental and a lot of work that we do to educate our community around the issues of incarcerated people and reentry.  Thank you so much. So last Saturday, I gave a keynote speech for evergreen, the art of giving. And it was surreal, you know, it was a blessing to be able to talk to the donors to potentially invest in others, you know, you know, they asked me to do it and I was like yes, absolutely because I've been a recipient of scholarships and I know what scholarships can do for others. Also, I work with JJ reentry scholars. That's another honor and blessing to work alongside my mentor towards assisting people and giving it back to my community. I also landed an opportunity to take Toastmasters into Green Hill JRA to help the youth develop a voice to be effective speakers and be able to articulate what they feel and convey that in a manner that they can get assistance. Again, it's surreal from where I come from as one to at-risk youth. So to be able to invest in those lives and, you know, help strengthen our community from the youth standpoint because they are the next generation. It's an honor. Thank you Paris and like congratulations on the honor and thank you for all of the work that you do. And one of the things that I want to say about doing these types of things in the youth prisons and adult prisons and everything. One of the proven facts is that education actually makes these facilities safer. Right. It breaks down the racial politics that happen. Because that's what you do in a classroom right you start educating yourself you start working together, and these other things begin to crumble right so they actually make prison safer and then, when we talked about the recidivism rates of those that get education, it actually makes our community safer, and it saves taxpayer dollars. So it's like, I think it's 10,000 a year to educate some of these are like the rough numbers to educate somebody $47,000 a year in Washington state to incarcerate somebody. And so we'll go on into the next question here. And this one. Let's start here with, we'll start with you Paris. Name one barrier you have faced during your transition. I would say the greatest barrier that I face in my transition is being judged by my old behaviors. I'm just seeing in seeing me in light of the current behavior, you know 15 years incarceration infection free full time school full time employment as an engineer, wanting to invest in my community and all ways. The concept of you're a felon and you still have time to do has been a barrier. While I was incarcerated you know the policies in place that tried to keep me from education, yet with tenacity, which was the theme of this week's speech. I'm not forced to those things and believe in myself. You know the system wasn't necessarily set up to assist me in seeing myself in a better light. So, that was my greatest, you know, barrier and transition just being judged by all behaviors. This is somewhere I have to throw big props out to the highlight community and the Center for leadership and service where I started my leadership journey right was that community hugged me in and allowed me to operate transparently right. I didn't judge me maybe there was some I don't know I didn't see it, but I wasn't judged. And that helped me to, I guess, exercise that internalized convict that was in me, and the paradigm shift from that to scholar to student to student leader is critical in my journey and where I am today. And so, just wanted to throw that out there. Catalina name one barrier you have faced in your time I don't know if it necessarily has to even be in your transition but you're a barrier as a formerly incarcerated person. I always like to touch base on this more specific to like I think there's an array of challenges that can happen. But for me specifically one that always stands out is housing. And so I, I did a big move all the way I'm originally from Eastern Washington and, you know, my, you know, my goal was to move here and to go to Evergreen and so I had to move all the way across you know, wallstone probation which is also another barrier but move all the way to Columbia and I just remember that I was two weeks away I had gotten my financial aid scholarships, everything was set right, but I couldn't find housing two weeks away from school starting and no housing moving across the state with a child. Right. And it was, you know, I, I didn't know what to do. But I was willing to. I had to start school, like it was important and so I was willing to move into a motel right and just live, you know, however I could until finally, you know, I reached out to my network right and my community.  But you know, basically I made him believe in second chances right.  I can definitely relate to that because when I transferred from mine to to Olympia right I came down the screen before and started seeing what I might be able to find a place. And basically I was told no everywhere no nobody with felon status. Luckily I had through the work I done like Catalina was able to reach into my network and find a place that way and so housing. Just so you all know is the number one barrier, formerly incarcerated people face in their transition. And I also want to say that it's a barrier for a lot of people with even people without, you know, backgrounds and so super important that we begin to address that issue. Let's go. Let's go next year, Jordan, do you want to. So, about two minutes till up till break and so do you want to go with a barrier real quick, Jordan. Yeah, just real quick. I think it's something that we can all relate to whether you know you're an ex incarcerated person or not but it's just like you find yourself in positions in life where you put up walls. So, I mean this is something that we all face all the time and it's never ending but it's like, taking them down. Thank you. Thank you Jordan. Um, looks like we, that was a quick answer so Gail, do you want to, you want to shoot at this one real quick. Yeah, for me it was isolation. I spent so many years programming so much and schooling and working and around positive people that I had created, you know, within that environment and releasing coming home to a community I'd never been into my little old parents and then COVID hit two months later and it was just really hard for me to not have a lot of that programming and positive support system. So learning how to rebuild that out here in a community that you don't even know anything about. Yeah, that definitely had to be tough and I remember having some long conversations with you. You know, I would like to say is like, Gail, Jordan and Paris, I started working with them before they were released and preparing the transition into our campus community and everything. And like I said earlier, Catalina and I were actually we started at Evergreen the same time and so she, she, she's like my classmate. But I think I think we're going to take a five minute break right now so you know if y'all need to do what you need to do and come back at 11 o'clock and we will, we'll just, we have two more questions and then we can open it up for Q&A for the last bit of the panel here. Thank you. Welcome back Highline family. We'll now resume with questions for our guest panelists, feel free to submit your questions in the Q&A feature at the bottom of your screen as we move along. If you have any problems just pop into the chat and let us know. Thanks. Back to you JJ and panelists. Welcome, welcome back everybody and you know just another thing that I really want to reinstate. It is less about crime in our country than it is about social economic issues and control systems of control. Everybody to kind of think about the emotional labor that it takes for these students to come and share so personally, right. And the goal, right, really of this whole presentation is for the audience to really challenge any of those, like I said, conscious and subconscious biases that they may have from the conditioning they received from the messaging that we get in our society, right. So we'll move back in and then we'll be able to open it up for questions from the audience here in just a couple minutes but I think this is a really important question for our panelists. In one goal have achieved, and it does not have to be in centered in education if it is that's fine too, but I just want to open that up for you all to be able to pick what has been a very important goal for you. As you have transitioned back in. Oh, let's. Let's start. Let's start. Let's see who didn't join. Let's go with you, Jordan. For me. It's always just about basically growing everything is growing and learning and I feel like when we lose side of that or when when that's not our priority. It's like stagnant and we get lost. And so for me, a goal that I think that I've achieved or at least that I'm achieving is this like the continuation of pushing myself out of my comfort zone because I feel like that's one of the most important things we can do is put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, because that's where we grow and that's where I feel like, and I'm sure you guys can relate. Those of you that have been in. It's like, that's the thing that made us make that time worth it and that's what made us make prison do something for us is obviously we're in an uncomfortable position anyway, but it's like putting yourself in even a more uncomfortable position for your own benefit like for your own self growth, you know, like a diamond doesn't turn into a diamond without the pressure, you know, and, you know, a Phoenix doesn't rise without the fire. And so I feel like just continuing to put myself in those situations and not be stagnant would be would be the goal that I at least keep, keep doing, I don't know about achieved I don't know if you can achieve that one. Thank you. Thank you for sharing Jordan. Let's let's take that question over to Gail. Yeah, I definitely relate a lot with what Jordan said I think for me it's overcoming a lot of the insecurities that I had, knowing that I was going to get released and, you know, being inside of an institution since you are a small child, and then realizing that you're going to go out into the community I didn't know like what I'd be able to have a conversation and not feel awkward, would I be able to go into a store and know how to pay for things or utilize the internet and a cell phone and all of the strengths that I've created within myself but not knowing what that was going to look like in, you know, society and so I think that for a long time it was really hard for me to put myself out there. There's uncomfortable situations like Jordan was talking about but then being able to recognize like I am a strong woman and I value who I am as a person now today and there are certain things that I want to achieve and just know that, regardless of what that looks like to keep pushing forward and eventually insecurities are starting to die away a lot but it's, it's still a challenge, you know. Yeah. Yeah, thank you Gail. Paris. One goal that's reoccurring and I'm gonna be doing for the rest of my life is being a beacon of light for people that need it. You know, the earliest parts of my years were brought negative negative response towards my actions towards my family legacy. And I told myself, you know, I will never do that again and today I'm successful in forging, you know, better results through my actions. And I've gotten a ton of great feedback from my community and my approach, you know, being called a professor or doctor.  Thank you. Thank you Paris. Carolina. For me, it has been being a mother being present, right. That's a really important role. You know, I'll share my child is autistic his name is Zachariah he's like, you know, he's, he's everything I you know I started to learn read books like I wanted to be this present, you know, parent for my child and I really attribute a lot of you know, everything I've learned, like I've learned through a different lens, you know, through him, right.  Thank you, Carolina, and I just know from being your friend. You're an amazing mother, and I see your strength your tenacity, right, I see that in all of you, right strength and tenacity, and one of my goals right. So when I graduated when it came time to graduate from Highline, they threw me an option out there where I could actually get like my high school diploma. Right. And so I was like, what, I can have my high school diploma. And so I was like, yeah, I signed up to get get that and so that I don't know if that was necessary a goal at that time but it was just really cool to get that. Okay, so we, we will let's see that. Well, Gail. Sorry, I almost forgot to ask you a goal. You achieved. I kind of already went through it just like overcoming my insecurities getting into the state capital and doing a lot of the work there, stuff like that. You did I'm sorry. I'm sorry I got that I missed you. Okay, we'll move into the next question. Aha moment, the moment things clicked for you. Right, the moment things clicked for you that maybe things could be a little different for you in life. We'll start this time. Let's start with Paris. This time. This moment that you know I had come, I signed up for a computer course. And it's a 24 month course and I, you know, kind of slated in six months. And I recognized that was a nerd, you know, I had like, like really found my identity, like in one course, and that opened up the door for me to sign up for another course and I slayed it. My tech design. You know I was not just a product of my, my, my circumstances, you know, and like I said, you know rehabilitation, what it looked like for me was education. It wasn't policy it wasn't correction it wasn't any of those things it was being lost in a book and learning some new concept. Thank you Paris and I just want to remind the audience to that you can start throwing your questions in the Q&A, if you haven't already, and we will go to Catalina next on the aha moment question. Yeah, for me, it was during incarceration and I, you know, I wanted to pursue something after, you know, I was gaining all these skills in there and I wanted to do something for myself after and so. I had with one of the interns in the sustainability and presence project, the graduate student. You know I had this conversation, you know about what if I want to go to college like I want to pursue education how do I get there what are the steps right, and also, I was like, will you help me right. It was a moment where I really started to use my voice and ask for help right these are tools that I, that I learned that I didn't necessarily have before right and that's how I started building this network and community of people and so that was, that was my aha moment with with him and it just really, you know set me up for this planning and what I've been able to to accomplish. Thank you Catalina and for those that you that don't know what sustainability and prisons project is. It's actually one of evergreens service or yeah service center service centers. And they have sustainability programs in all 12 state prisons and for example I believe Catalina you did the butterfly program. And that's where they were working with endangered species of butterflies. Another example is they have a turtle program right where the are Washington state Tom per pond turtles were getting these shell diseases, and they would pull them out the vets would do surgery on them, and then the incarcerated technicians and that program would take care of them until they were ready to be re released right. And so they have different programs and all the different they got like a frog program and these different sustainability programs it's really cool. And, and it also tracks some of those technicians on their way to evergreen to. So they get they get like a certificate that they can in our certificated learning process where they can get up to 15 evergreen credits. Um, let's go ahead and go with Jordan on the on the aha moment question the moment things clicked for you. So me I'd say the moment things clicked for me was when, when I stopped. I guess stopped having the feel like had to prove things and going from a place of of really deep darkness to a place of like all life is sacred and really just. I think that's more more than a paradigm shift but but I'll call it that for now like just that paradigm shift in and of itself. It's basically the opposite of what I was where I was mentally before and emotionally and even. You know just living, living a life where where all you care about is yourself or you're just in fight or flight survival mode all the time. To that shift of of actually caring about the world and caring about the people around you and seeing that that you know not only is your own life sacred but but all life is sacred. And thank you Jordan. Thank you for sharing that with us. Gail. Yeah, so for me. So I spent the first 10 years in prison, lost and broken I was fighting the staff all the time I spent most of my time in segregation and in 2007. I actually flying me down on a private jet to segregation in Arizona because they didn't know what to do with me anymore and I remember being on the plane. And it was the two pilots and security staff and me and they were having these conversations about green energy and taxes and elections and I realized I had not a single clue about anything they were talking about. And I just sat there and realized like I had spent these years of my life being so consumed with my own internal issues and politics of the prison and so when we landed and I was finally able to buy a walk man. I started listening to npr and talk radio and I became borderline obsessive about learning about things in the world and it eventually shifted my perspective to where when you realize the poverty that's going on in Haiti or the crisis in the Middle East like you, you are almost incapable of feeling sorry for yourself no matter what your situation is here a lot of times because there are so many bigger problems. And I think that recognizing my own. Nuitivity around the whole world is really what shifted me completely as a person. Wow, that's that's incredible. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And so, I know for me my moment was after I received. So I was 36 years old when I got to prison didn't even have a GD, no skill, no trade. I knew how to do was sell drugs and party at that time in my life right broke I was very broken and everything. I had to get a GD right to get a better pay grade in the prison industry job this is why I decided to get my GD right. Once I got my instructor miss Henderson is her name. She got my scores back called me to office and she's like Mr Jackson, your scores are really high. You should think about some of these college courses they at the prison I was at they had a business program with the local college and they had some electives right. And I told miss Henderson I was like miss Henderson. I'm not here for that I'm here to get paid and get on this way pile right, but miss Henderson seen something me that I couldn't see and kept calling me to her office until she talked me into taking a couple of the electives I took cultural anthropology and a counseling course, and they had a real, you know, classroom environment we had classrooms there and everything, and I super enjoyed it, and I found out that I was kind of smart, right, and that maybe things could be different for me. And so that was the moment that said I still had a lot of personal healing and growth to do. I had disciplinary issues kind of like what Gail was talking about, got transferred to a yard where they didn't really have anything going but it was there that I did the healing right that I realized if I didn't figure out I was going to die in prison. And so I got humble, right, I accepted responsibility for my choices and decisions for gave myself for gave others and learn to love myself again, and that cleared the way for me to be successful, because it wasn't just about the book smarts. I had to be, I guess, emotionally smart as well. And so, um, those are the questions that that we have for the panel do we have any questions I don't see anything in the Q amp a am I missing that or said it is there any questions anybody would like to ask the panelists let's see I'm looking to chat here. Okay. This is a great one. How do you each practice self care, and we'll start with Gail. Yeah, that's hard. I'm coming home. So many responsibilities I'm taking care of two old sick parents all the time. But I think for me self care means like when I start feeling overwhelmed or I get too anxious, regardless of what my obligations are whatever it is like I need to put myself first. So if I have to step away or cancel a meeting or, you know, like just to take a minute to like remind myself I'm finally home. This is like, I need to be so grateful for every little thing that I have an opportunity to and sometimes I can get so lost in the everyday of what it means to exist out here and I lose sight of that sometimes so for me it's just reminding myself of how grateful I am and that there are so many people that still are struggling to get to this place of freedom. Thank you, Gail. Let's go with Jordan next on that. So for me, for one I got like a five month old German shepherd puppy so he gives me a lot of stuff to do and I feel like in and of itself self care you know like taking care of something else. And that and I would say writing, you know, I feel like writing is super underappreciated when it comes to like processing things and actually like transforming your life. And if you think I'm wrong, right for 20 days straight from your own. Nice Jordan, thank you and let's go with Catalina on self care. Um, so for me, for me it's spending quality time with my family. But, you know, I think, you know, on the back end of that there was a lot of like building up to these goals that I had for you know after you know release and so there was a lot of community work and you know a lot of, you know, advocate work and all this stuff and to build build build right. My resume to build who I am to build the presence and you know there was a time where it was just so much I would you know completely book myself up right and then I started to realize like if I'm giving giving consistently I have nothing to put back right to myself or to my family. And so um, and so you know I learned how to say no right I said no I don't I'm not going to do that meeting sorry I can't show up or you know all of that and then I was able to give back right and then really spend that intentional quality time with my family because they deserve right for me to be there with them as well so yeah. Thank you Catalina super important Paris. For me. I have a different perspective on self care. And a lot of people don't agree with me but what I've done for self care is serve others, you know, um, I think that's the one selfish thing that I do that when I help somebody it's almost as though when it's done and I get the smile. And that a little bit like I'm, I'm accomplishing something, you know, um, I don't know how to say no so I may need to talk to Carolina. So she can help me with that one. But my family members also tell me the same thing like you know you're always running. There's a lot of work to do so you know I don't find ways to rest or anything like that. I just say yes let's get it done. And we'll deal with all the rest of that afterwards so. Yeah thank you Paris and you can learn to say no to me. So self care for me is it's really hard, and I haven't been great at it of late I am. Honestly I'm just getting back to a place where I've been feeling good. Since probably the beginning of December it's just been really crazy mental health has taken a hit physical health has taken a hit and everything. And so, but how I've been practicing is since the sun come out getting out and taking walks, exercising the doors doors will probably be surprised to hear that, you know, because when I was a high line. I was extremely fit, extremely fit weight about 150 pounds. I now way closer to 190. Anyway, so you know just getting back to some of those those practices and also unplugging right like at the end of the day unplug. I just say okay this is it I'm done, you know and some some days that's harder to do the other days but it's super important, right and then and then do those other things around the house that need to be done. And so, I think just being conscious of my mental and physical health which leads to a healthy spirit. It looks like we have a couple of questions in the q amp a. Can I ask you one of them. We have, I imagine that it was hard to connect with new people when you knew that they may have preconceived notions about you based on your past. How did you all approach building trust, trusting relationships and networks to support your transition outside and overcome imposter syndrome. I'm going to let you all, whoever wants to jump in on this one was popcorn it. I'll just say for me. I find that just being extremely honest and truthful right in the very beginning can for one bill trust if the person is willing to accept that. And for to can have through a lot of BS if they're not willing to accept it and, you know, where you stand like you just like for me I just, I just tell people like I'm not the person well I was in for, and I'm just super transparent and honest and wherever it goes from there, that's, that's up to, you know, what's up to them for real Jordan that's that's a great answer and that's how I operate as well so let's let's let Catalina take that one and then we'll go to the next question for for Paris and Gail. Yeah.  Thank you Catalina. Thank you. The next question. Thank you all for sharing your insights and stories. Who would each of you like to professionally collaborate with and what role model or person like two questions what role model person you admire past or present would you want to have dinner with. Yeah, you want to take that one. So as far as collaboration I really want to remain engaged with some of the legislators that I've gotten to know that it's not just political for them like they actually care about helping to uplift impoverished communities and sentence reform so I want to continue that work with them as far as who I would love to have dinner with so there's an activist slash attorney Brian Stevenson, and he's from down south but he, he really puts himself out there and makes his position very vocal on racial disparities and the history of the community and how it's translated into the way that we sentence individuals and he single handedly is the reason why I'm even free today because of a court case he had with a juvenile and you took it all the way up to the Supreme Court juvenile that had life without and every time I hear him speak in an interview or a TED talk he's just so passionate and care so much about his work and yeah I would love to have dinner with him. There was another question in the chat and in Paris I don't do you feel comfortable answering that question it looks like it was dressed to to you. I wasn't addressing me I just reposted it because it was in the regular to you so you've seen it. Okay, and they reposted it in the question so yeah. For the for the most part, I don't identify. I'm like in this gray area, you know, I understand where those that I used to hang out with where they lie you know what what some of their struggles. I'm not comfortable in that in that arena anymore. And I'm not comfortable in this new identity either, because it feels like I have to prove a lot you know in order to be validated almost. I will say this though. So sometimes it appears as though it's easy to revert back to old behaviors, their old behaviors and you changed them for a reason. So the concept of going back to them is not an option. So, when I feel like I'm overwhelmed with circumstance, or decisions, or pressure from the people that are around me. I find myself in that moment you know what am I meant to learn in this moment, you know, how do I push through this without going backwards, and most times I find myself making a better decision. So I hope that answers your question. It's a it's a difficult thing transitioning from prison culture to this culture, and some of us have spent a significant amount of years living in that culture. So it almost is learned behavior that we have to unlearn when we come out here and there was a thing. I will share a tidbit me and Jordan used to be sellies. We had to theorize about how the world would receive us. So we would talk about being transparent. And in that transparency, those that accept you will be the those that will be along for your ride and those that don't will people be people that you just surpass and move on from. That's a great answer and I will say this. For me, it was the realization that if I returned to old behaviors, right, then I will return to prison, right. And there's more to that right but I mean, that's just a quick simple answer for that one. If I returned to my old behaviors I would end up in prison and I also knew that I would probably spend the rest of my life in prison. And so it's been, it's been easy as far as I goes. I do want to thank our panelists, right. I want to thank you all so much for making yourself vulnerable as you do. I'm so proud of all of you and I'm and I'm so looking forward to the future of working with you as we all move, you know, in our careers and our education and stuff. And thank you so much again for coming and sharing with the highlight community. Thank you. Again, JJ and yeah. We're so proud of you and we're honored that you joined us today. And thank you for all that you offer our community.


How about the new coaches, new coaches? I think there were like four and oh, brand new coaches in new places or whatever. Total of new coaches, if you talk about McDaniels and I think it's Lovey Smith who's been a head coach before, very successful weekend, like five, two and one or something like that. I believe is new coaches in new places for week one. That nerd down there in Miami, who smokes more weed than me. Hey, this guy might be unbelievable. This guy might be an absolute stallion. This guy might have those boys down there in Miami believing or are the Patriots dead? The Cajones on McDaniel for going forward on that fourth and seven to kind of put that game away. Are the Miami Dolphins for real? Are the Patriots dead?