The best kind of doors are the doors you have to explain. All right, welcome, welcome to Unhinged. Today we have a very special guest. My name is Andrew Herring. I am Vice President of Business Development at the National Glass Association. Okay, let's jump into the next one. You ready? I think I know that project. Really? If you could zoom in on that door tag. Is perhaps the building tilted? The Haunted Shack at Knott's Berry Farm. I went first last time. I think this one's pretty clear on a few things.  Just the headlights and everything around it. So the only thing I wonder is like, was the building going for an aesthetic, right? Is it perhaps a school? Are they trying to make it look fun? I hesitate to say inviting, but are they trying to make it look quirky? By like, was this purposeful or was it not purposeful? It's the Picasso Art Museum. I think if that was the intent, they need to make it a little bit more intentional because this is like slightly off to where you'd kind of like be walking by and do like a double take and make sure it unsettles you just enough to kind of feel unsafe. Am I having a stroke or what? It hurts you a little bit, right? Like there's like something off-putting about this picture. Yeah, and those intermediates, you know, even those could have a little bit more uniformity to it but if it was intentional, you know, I get that it could be plain with some angles, but I don't know, I'm looking, I think I would see more play in the brickwork. I think it was existing conditions that they just tried to match, but I don't know. I guess I would hope that it was on purpose or that's a gnarly callback. Yeah, could you imagine being the owner, signing off on this like, no, let's try this again. It's almost like an optical illusion because if you do just frame out the opening, it's square and blunt. Like it's a really good looking opening. So whoever did the door hardware install, fantastic job, I would give them props actually. It looks like a commercial entrance, very much like a school. They've got some nice medium style doors, good for high traffic. I mean, the hardware could be great. It's got a nice fatty bottom rail. It's probably got a really nice crash pad on the other side. The hardware is probably money. I just, I don't want that in my building. And apologies to whatever NGA member did that if you did. It doesn't look as bad if you tilt your head a little bit. I don't know, is that better or is that worse? I don't know.  But is worse better? Is this what we're going for? I don't know. This one needs wine.  I can't get in there too much. It looks like a clean install. So I don't know. I bet you it had to be, me is probably right. It's probably on purpose and just not enough for my taste. But I mean, I don't see any bad cocking. I mean, it looks, there's no big gaps in the door. The glass itself looks pretty good. There's no deflection or warp in there. So I don't, I think it was some quirky architect. It's the architect's fault. Always. Do you have backstory on this one? No, no. Yeah, sorry. Wish I had more information on this one. Keck, any last remarks before we give it a knocking score? Well, we're rating the whole application or hardware or the entrance only. Yes. Do you love the masonry work? I don't know. This one's okay to me. If there's no way that was done on accident and someone signed off on that, because the way they would have had to order that glass, even the fabricator would have said, are you sure? And like, you try to assign this in triplicate saying, this is what you want. So I think this is a matter of taste, not my tastes again. So I don't know. I'd give this one on. It's not too bad. I'd give this one on a two, two and a half. Yeah, yeah. I would agree with you and not the step on your toes, Mia, but I would agree with you. I don't think it's very knocking bad in general. In fact, I think the hardware and whoever installed the glass did a great job. It makes you a little queasy. At least, Mia. Yeah, well, so I have vertigo. I don't know if you have it before looking at this. Before looking at this. But no, I think this is, if this was done intentionally, it's a one. I'm not gonna yuck anyone's yum. So it's not for me. But if it was on purpose, there's nothing wrong with what they did. They've made it to specifications, so. I agree. I think it would, I don't think we could find it. If anyone listening or watching this has info, I mean, I think it'd be interesting to see a whole building elevation to see what other openings look like on it to give you some sense of theme or design intent. But yeah, I'm with you guys. Or just more of these, so we can make Mia even queesier.  Yes, exactly. Love it. The new fire code. Kat, are you ready for the final picture? Oh boy, I have no idea what to expect given. Was this a recent picture? I see West. Yeah, okay. Did you take this picture? I took this picture. Is there a very large gap or is that like propped open one of the doors aside from being tied closed? Yeah, I think maybe someone tried to use it and then like it's just pulled open because there's stanchions on both sides. Well, I can go on a few. I mean, there's the glaring obvious blocked exit. I don't know if there's more doors next to it, but either way, that's a no, no. I'm sure they had, hopefully this was just a really quick temporary fix, something spilled or crashed and they had to improvise something fast, but you were there, maybe you have more background. Ignoring just that and that gap with some of the doors open. If you look at the sill, it looks like it is a jar. Just that bottom rail, that won't fly. That looks like a four inch. That either needs to be 10 inch or it can be smaller, but it needs to have a tapered edge to pass ADA and that does not. I don't know where these lock, I can't tell if that's a lot, if there's a lock down on the door rails, but I'm not sure where these are secured. There are like that. That's code compliant, just a personal preference.  There's so many options available right now to where you don't have to do that, but that's just a preference that'll still pass an inspection. And try rekeying one of those cylinders. ISC West, you said? Yeah, yeah. Which was in Las Vegas? Yeah, yeah, Las Vegas. And so that door will perform like badly as far as heat transfer. And so I think, unless there's another set of doors before you reach the outside, I can see from the reflection it doesn't, but that in Vegas, you got heat and you got wind like no other. And if you were there two weeks ago, there was a torrential downpour that's gonna perform terribly with water. So for an exterior entrance or exit, that's gonna let everything through that. That's a hard no dog for me. It doesn't look terrible. Those are just the things that I pick up on. Yeah, no, great insight. I actually didn't catch the ADA compliance, but you're right, and it's gotta be at least a 10 inch bottom rail for that to happen, right? Or the lift button. You can do, you can even do a four inch or a six inch, but it has to have, I figure what the degree is, it has to have a tapered end just so there's no obstruction for a cane or a wheelchair. Or I think you can get away with it if you have power operators, but even if you have those, I've seen that shut down depending on who the AHA is. Ooh, yeah. But the glass is pretty. Did it seem like it was temporarily blocked, Benji? Or did it seem like they've been using this for a while? So I was there all week, and I was up and down this area every day, at least once or twice. And it was like this the whole time I was there. So at least it wasn't, it should have been an emergency call, it wasn't. This was like temporary solution that probably got put onto the back burner. Man, I bet you every building owner in Vegas hates it when ISC West comes to town and you've got thousands of geeks and nerds just analyzing and criticizing everything, going through fine tooth comb, magnifying glass. I bet you probably left a note on this door too every day you went. I have questions. Your friend Benji. I don't know if you guys wanted a little bit of backstory on this photo, but this is a very large, very well-known casino. That's the show floor. So one of the main entrances slash exits. I'm sure there's other emergency exits around, but if you are in a casino that have thousands of people in there and you're in a panic, you're probably just gonna go towards the light. And this is just setting up for a massacre. People shoving up against the glass doors, not being able to get out. I always like look at these situations, like what's the worst case scenario that could happen? And this one scared me. Yeah, someone's going right through it. I don't know, I can't tell. Is that laminated glass in there? I couldn't tell you. Cause then it's definitely a death trap.  That is on my screen. I can't tell if there's a seam in there. It looks like there might be or if I can't tell if I'm just seeing the opposite side of the edge. If there is, that's good for, you know, all those hurricanes that happen in Vegas, but it's good for riots too. But if the doors blocked, it's definitely trapping people in. Yeah, yeah. No, it's gonna be hard to get through that. Even if it wasn't, I'm sure someone would break through. Do you think? Do you have to break through glass doors to escape an emergency? Oh, hopefully never. You can only do that on accident. I'm just saying, if it was just monolithic, you know, the first five people to try to run through it, yeah, they're not gonna be feeling good and it's not gonna end pretty, but at least I can run in after they break it and run out to delicately step over them. One of those situations where you don't want to be the fastest, right? Like you don't want to be the first four. You don't want to be the pioneer on that frontier. Do you think you'd be able to untie the inside stanchion and then spread the doors wide enough to untie the outside one? Probably not with hundreds of people pushing up against it. No, no, but like if you had advanced warning. Maybe, that's like, I don't know, that's like double knotted there. That's wrapped around and twisted and, I don't know. Not pretty. Sardine canned in there, you know. Yeah. Coachella style crowd pressed against the glass. I don't think you're going anywhere. Yeah, anyways, any last remarks before we give it a knocking score? It's very handy that they have an ATM right by the entrance, just, you know, you never have to leave. That's good. You know, Vegas does that very well.  Yeah. Very few windows. They don't want you to know what time of day it is, bumping fresh oxygen and literally tie the doors closed. You know, this was just a marketing play, right? So get more money from, ah, I can't leave. I better go back and gamble more. Yeah, might as well. Knocking score, I don't know. This is more than aesthetics. There's some actual code stuff going on here. I gotta give this one an eight, maybe, and then the performance factor. Yeah. Yeah, this one's pretty high. I think the only reason it's not a 10 for me is because you could break the glass. Whereas if it was like a metal door, you're kind of stuck, like permanently stuck. So I'm gonna make sure I put one of those car break things in my purse, you know, the ones to break that your car glass and cut your seatbelt. I'm just gonna leave that in my purse when I go to Vegas. Good luck at DSA. Put it in my checked baggage. Why score them a little kinder? Because I do like that for the stanchions, they use complementary colors, purple and yellow. That's very nice aesthetically. And, you know, Laker fan from Los Angeles. So they scored a little better. What do you say, you, Benji? Yeah, I would say this is pretty bad, especially when you add the scale of number of people or the occupancy of the building is massive. And being a major entrance and exit, that's a big no-no in at least life safety code. Yeah, so probably, yeah, an eight or nine or even like on the cusp of a 10, like, I don't know, maybe maybe not because they probably do have other exits that people could escape, but this would be initial reaction when people panic, they're gonna head towards this door. Okay, are we done with this one? I think we are. I feel good about this. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew, for joining us. O.G. Glass nerd, excited to have you on the show. Oh, it is actually, okay, okay. That's funny, that's funny. Yes, join us next time for the next episode of Unhinged. Our doors are always open because they're unhinged. If you wanna be featured on future episode of Unhinged or you have a photo to share with us, leave a comment down below. Thanks for watching.


class. Okay good morning everyone and welcome to the class the recording is on for this lecture so the lecture will be recorded and we can also share it on the e-learning portal for the benefit of those students who are learning through the portal. All right let's pray then we will get started I want to invite somebody just to please pray with us and we will get our class started. Somebody can unmute your mic and please pray. Go ahead friends. Thank you father. I give thanks to you a lot. Thank you as I gather in this time lot. As I go into in this class what help us to understand that each of the things that we will capture and to use in our ministry lot help us understand and so I pray for faster give him wisdom that we will get more and more instruction lot. Thank you in this time and also those who did not I pray for them they will turn correctly a lot. Thank you. Thank you friends. Thank you. Right so we are talking about urban church planting and we are just laying some basic foundational understanding before we get into the the nuts and the bolts and the things of you know how do we go about doing this. Yesterday we started talking about getting God's heart for our cities and that's what we wanted to be we're emphasizing on the lecture yesterday and we want to spend some more time on that I will share the the notes so that we could all follow along in the notes and so we talked about you know the fact that God identifies himself with cities now primarily the city of Jerusalem he calls it the city of the great King Jesus called the city of the great King referring to the city of God and we also saw that you know God looks at cities he sees what's going on and he is touched by what's happening in the cities in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah in the case of Nineveh and we said that you know God was displeased with all the sin that he saw that was happening in those cities we also looked at you know how Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem and he wept over the city and we asked ourselves this question you know why did Jesus weep you know over the city of Jerusalem right so let's progress on that from there now we're going to just look at a few more aspects of God's heart for city and then the emphasis here is we must you know capture God's heart that means we too must have God's heart for the communities we live now of course you know when we talk about city you know each time you are trying to reach the important thing is to get God's heart for that community for that people whether it's a city or a part of a city or a town or a village you know whatever come into your part of get God's heart for them another important thing we want to look at an ax the 17th chapter and we will read verses 26 and 27 somebody could read the ax 17 26 and 27 so we can read it please or ax 17 26 and 27 go ahead somebody could read that for us and and he had made him he has made from one blood every nation of man to dwell on all the face of the earth and has to determine their the appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might go for him and find him so he is not far from each one of us so it's very interesting you know right here in ax 17 Paul is in the city of Athens and Athens at that time was the intellectual capital of the world and in the city of Athens you know from this city and from this place came many of the prominent Greek philosophers in those days or just prior to Paul's time and while Paul is now speaking in that city of course when he comes to Athens he surveys the city he gets a feel of the city and so on and it's very interesting there while he's he has the opportunity to speak to the people that Athens and he says this he says you know God has made from one blood every nation of man that means you know we all have the same makeup composition God create all of us same and he says that in verse 26 God determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings very interesting so where do people dwell of course you know at a very broad level we say okay we all live in nations in our countries we all belong to a certain country true but we also dwell in communities we also dwell in towns or villages or cities but that's also dwelling and it's saying here that God has pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so God's in some way and and you know we we don't know all the details but God has been involved in the appointing of the times and the boundaries the times and the boundaries think about that here it says God has appointed times and boundaries for the dwellings of their people are living times and boundaries whether it's you think about it in terms of nations or whether you think about in terms of cities communities somehow God's hand is involved in that so what I want to impress in our hearts is this that God's hand has been involved in the community or the dwelling place where you are whether it's you know whether you think about in terms of the city or whether you think about it in terms of your town or village or whether you think about in terms of the nation God has been involved in the establishing of that community of that city or that town or village so no village no town no city or no nation has happened by accident there somehow God's hand is involved because he says yeah he has determined who God has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of the dwellings and very interesting verse 27 why was why is God involved in this was so that people seek the Lord and find him so somehow in every city there is something there or in every community there is something there that God has put that would point them to Jesus you know so we need to look for this look for this God what is there what is that in my city that you have placed so that people may seek you and find you let me say well I never thought of it like this well if you look at these verses that's what they're indicating so we need to begin to pray say God what about my city or what about the community where I'm living what are the things here that can point people to you because you know you let them dwell there so that they might seek you and find you so what about that God how can people in my city come to know you and you may not pray necessarily in these words but the prayer is simple now God what is your heart for my city how can my yeah how can these people whether it's a village or a town or a community wherever you look what are we looking at how can these two come to know you now God's put something there which is redemptive in nature that will point them to him and we need to pray and ask God so when we think about this you know we must understand the importance here of receiving God's heart for our city because it's almost like a key to unlock the city for God it's almost like if we can identify God's redemptive plan for the city it will help us in reaching our city so in the book taking our cities for God John Dawson you know he shares some of these things of being able to look for God's redemptive plan for the city and you know and it gives an example saying like each city has a certain destiny and it's been it's it's it's known for something and sometimes one of the ways that you could recognize God's redemptive plan for a city is even if it's the wrong it's been misplaced or it's been perverted right so instead of doing the good they end up doing the exact opposite the bad but that bad is indicating that God's original plan was the opposite so you understand hey the city was meant to be a proclamation of the gospel but it's a proclaim the gospel they may be putting out wrong things or you know proclaiming the opposite but the original plan was to be a proclamation to be a proclamer of the gospel to be a city that would spread the news of Jesus Fire and White you know so you can understand the redemptive plan for the city we're just praying over it understanding what's happening and you know getting God God this is the destiny or this is your plan for my city and I want to see that fulfilled I want to see that restored okay so as we talk a little bit more about cities and God's heart for the cities God wants us to pray for our city we are all familiar with Jeremiah 29 let's go there this is again interesting passage of Jeremiah 29 verses 7 and 8 somebody could read that for us we're all familiar with this Jeremiah 29 7 and 8 something please read it work for the good cities of good of the cities where I have made you go as a prisoner pray to me on their behalf because if they prosper prosper you will be prospered do to I Lord the God of Israel warn you not to let yourself be deceived by the prophet who live among you or by any other who claim they can predict the future do do not do not pay any attention to their dreams yeah so Jeremiah 29 so thank you so he says you know now that the background is this right the Jewish people have been taken captives to Babylon so they are actually in a bad situation bad situation meaning they are captives they are in exile they're living in Babylon it's not their home city they're living in a foreign city but in that city God is saying hey I want you to seek the peace of the city I want you to you know pray for it you will have peace so it tells us something very important that you know whichever city we are in we can pray to the Lord for our city God himself is telling his people pray for the city so we pray God I salvation my city has pray for the well-being of my city I pray for the peace of my city now I pray that the city will experience Jesus in a very powerful way pray for the city right our prayers may be very small compared to you know the the challenges of the city the needs in the city but it's not about you know how big our prayers are it's about how big our God is so our prayers are small but God is big right he's much bigger infinitely bigger than our city you know sometimes when we look at our city things can be very intimidating right we look at our city we look at the problems we look at the challenges we look at the numbers of people millions we look at all kinds of things it can be very intimidating when God says you know pray for the city and we realize it's not about not you know how big our prayers are but it is how big our God is and he's bigger than the biggest challenge we have in the city right so we just pray God bless our city God touch our city God visit our city God let us experience a mighty work of God the people may be safe he will come to know you and he said pray for the city in its peace you will have peace the other thing we understand and of course you have already studied this in your course on prayer is that God looks for intercessors for the city right so when God is looking at the city we know we've said earlier he sees the problems in the city he's very aware of what's happening but he's looking for people will pray for the city and that's what you and I should do and we just look at these verses once again quickly just to remind ourselves and Isaiah 59 verses 14 through 16 somebody could read that for us Isaiah 59 14 through 16 please so shall I read go ahead please just as it's turned back and I just will stand afar off for truth is far and in the street and equity cannot enter so through faith and he who departs from evil makes with himself or praise then that then the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor therefore his own our God's salvation for him and his own righteousness is sustained him it's the same yeah thank you so you know we see this scripture and we also see a very parallel scripture in Ezekiel 22 you know in both these passages and Isaiah 59 14 through 16 also in the parallel passage in Ezekiel 22 29 to 31 we you know it describes to us the condition of the city right that things are bad there is no justice people are being oppressed all kinds of things happening and in both these passages as f 59 and in Ezekiel 22 we see God's response you see that in both these passages it says God's looked for an intercessor he looked for somebody who would stand in the gap for the land of our city so why God's aware of what's happening in the city what is he looking for he's looking for intercessors he's looking for people who will say God I pray your mercy I ask for your intervention God I pray for the city I pray for you know the things to change my city and so God is looking for intercessors for the city so this is one very important reason why we need to get God's heart for the city because when we begin to see the city the way God sees it and we're able to pray for the city for the things that are things that matter able to pray for the city and lift that up before God right that we don't look at it as okay this is the end this is the doom you know this is the city will never change it's been like this for so many years now we just pray and see God touch the city all right and and you know we if we are going to work with God we need to be able to walk with God we need to walk with God so we can work with God so we have to be in agreement with him in our city we have for our city we can walk with him then we can work with him in doing what he wants us to do for the city so I want to encourage you you know as we talk about get you know urban church planning as we talk about you know how do we work in the city in planning a church or a ministry you know just beginning to say God you know I'll give me your heart for the city helping to see the people as you see them help me to have compassion for them your compassion for them help me to pray for my city as we begin to develop your heart that for the city and it's an ongoing thing it's not like I pray once and it's over no I mean you can see and when we start talking about when we get into this course and let me just yeah when we get into this course and be you know we start talking about some of the things we can do in preparation to work in the city of planet church in the city and as you start thinking about your own city sometimes you can get very overwhelming you know when you look at the problems when you look at the size and look at the complexity of the city it can become very overwhelming it can be become very discouraging we tend to take the mindset that well nothing's going to change so first avoid that the city may be in yesterday are big but God is still bigger God is still more powerful right so don't get overwhelmed by the complexity of the city second thing I want to alert us to is don't get hardened towards the city sometimes it's easy for us to become hard hot towards the city that means you know we get upset with the city we get angry with the city we say all the bad things about the city I'm not saying don't recognize the problems we need to but I'm just I'm think don't get upset with the city some people are so mad at their own city which they live in they're angry they're angry with their officials they're angry with people they're angry with certain communities they're angry with certain things that are going on they upset now if you're upset about the city it's going to be very difficult to do something good for the city it's going to be very difficult to pray for the cities when we very difficult to love the people in the city so that's the second thing God your heart from getting hardened towards your own city now when I use what city remember it could be a community among whom you dwell it could be a village it could be a town wherever you're living wherever God has placed you wherever you God has put you to work two things don't get overwhelmed and don't get hardened towards the city so God's heart is towards the city and in closing you know we see the New World you see the heavenly city Jerusalem coming down so God is a prepares a city for his people to dwell in so you can you know that's just a little side note there that hey God does is interested in the city and in cities and everything ends even in a city right so any questions before we go forward any thoughts and any questions everybody's with me so far so what is that you know we need to get out of the city never you are so God give me your first place or place that you know God sending you to or way or maybe he's placed you already there then give me your heart for the sitting now another important part here let me share my screen when we start talking about urban church planting is to understand the natural dynamics of urban centers that means cities and it really helps it is really good for us to do our homework to know to understand the city right now and today we have a lot of tools available and I remember the church all people's church in those days the only thing I could do was to write to a few pastors in the city so we were living in the US at that time so I knew a few pastors from Bangalore and I wrote to them I said you know we are planning to come to the city come and come back to back areas in the city that you recommend where there are no churches that you would can point us to where we should be thinking of planting the church now in those days we didn't have the ability I mean to do the kind of searches you can today you have Google Maps you can go online you can survey the city through Google Maps but those days we didn't have that opportunity to do that so you know we didn't have those tools that we have today and we're talking about over 20 years ago so you know we we try to do our homework through whatever we could without few letters and these you know ask people as pastors to make some suggestions about areas Bangalore but today we have tools through which we can get information about cities and places we're going to minister in and we're going to you know address that but let's just talk a little bit briefly on how is a city different on a village you know if there's some thoughts here you can just share randomly a city of village what are some differences this is to get us to think right you can unmute your mic or you can type in the chat a village a city what are some differences that you can think of between these two kinds of places you can type in the chat or you could just unmute your mic and share your thoughts we just discussing so this is there's no you know right or wrong answer perfect and just share your thoughts almost what do you think some of the differences are between a village and a city especially the context that we are thinking of discussing so Kiran says different development in village side we can go ahead Thomas go ahead we can you see the multi language in the city and different culture different kind of people in villages where we can find one language in a simple lifestyle the simple message and simple things are okay but in city they're coming from the different parts of the places when we impact one person he can go and impact the whole village you can see in the gospel as well so cities are the very important especially when we have discussed about Nina ways today that moved my heart that's really touched my heart God because the city is the center place where people came here and being here and doing the things so it's very important to touch to the people in the food sorry think my connection dropped a bit and Thomas said usually in a village you know it's very homogeneous there is one of people who are of the same culture usually they speak the same language but as we come into a city this heterogeneous is very complex it's it's there it's diverse you have lots of community different communities lots of different languages people have come from different places very often from different parts of the world they're all living in a city unlike the village and then I see in the chat a lot of you have type different things there is differences in development education colleges and schools population and time and also mentioned in the kind of work office work these are all big differences between a village and a city you know a village usually development happens very slowly you know after 20 years you you might see little change you know maybe there's a new building that's come up or something like that you know it takes a long time before you see any change and and the way people are living and so on but it's in the city things are changing very far in this chapter when we talk about the natural dynamics of urban centers what I want us to understand is that we especially for us people who are working in cities we must be aware of what is happening in the city because things in the city are changing very fast lots of things are changing and if we are not in touch with what's happening we could miss out on impacting people so let me just explain you know maybe I can use Bangalore the city as an example and those of you are familiar with Bangalore you will understand your rate you know in the 1980s that time I was student here the Bangalore prior to that and you know what was was known as the guard it was known as a pensioners paradise it was known as a retirement city of Bangalore you know that the British were here they had established a lot of controlment areas very very nicely developed lots of trees and you know they done it up well those those certain areas and so in Bangalore it was very beautiful city it was very quiet city very peaceful so literally in those days I used to cycle from home to pool it was almost like eight kilometers and so I you know go on cycle on the roads today you hardly find any cycles on the streets of Bangalore you know maybe people use it as in a small in maybe in their own apartment areas or so on but you don't see cycles on the roads but those days the roads were there was not much traffic few cars and the roads were literally quiet and people used to cycle from place A to place B these two one cycles this is a very peaceful city it was a you know a place where people used to you know come to a tire they used to come to just enjoy the garden I mean the beautiful trees in a very quiet city those were in the 80s then now then what happened in the 90s of course the government was doing things to develop the country and so they invited a lot of foreign foreign companies they opened up for foreign investors and so on and what happens a lot of multinational corporations companies came straight to Bangalore Bangalore was one of the attractive cities just some of course there are other cities like Delhi and Mumbai but Bangalore was you know probably the most attractive city at that time a lot of multinational companies came in and by the end of the 1990 1990s early part of 2000 there were lots of call centers and they call them IT enabled services set up here all across and suddenly things in the city changed very drastically you know we went from a city that was a garden city a pensioners paradise very quiet and peaceful city suddenly you had all these companies come in set up offices and you had people moving into Bangalore from just everywhere and and call centers opening up every place all around the city I mean it's good overall good for in terms of you know employment or all of that but I'm just saying I'm just looking at the dynamics the change that took place in the city and then you know it had a huge impact on the youth because these call centers they were just hiring people you know many of them would just finish 12th grade education if they could speak decent English they can get into call centers all they're doing is answering phones you know for various things they get them training and so on so suddenly the young people that they finished 12th or they finished a basic bachelor's degree they get employed in the call centers they would be earning huge money which was huge for you know so the youth suddenly had a lot of money coming into their hands they would work in these call centers another thing was people working on different shifts you know suddenly these young people were working at night you know because they had to serve the US or the UK or overseas you know different time customers in different time zones and so they had a huge impact on the young people you know young people had a lot of money they were working at these shifts they were there were all these malls opening up in the city and so on and so we saw a drastic change happen in the city of Bangalore and then so this went on for you know quite a good part of 10, 12, 15 years and then suddenly there was you know what they call as a dot-combust so some of these things the IT enabled services, BPO's a lot of them began to close you know so people had to change you know and so of course we do have some call centers but not as much as it used to be in the early part of the 2000s there are still some call centers and data centers and a lot of there was a shift more towards other kinds of IT enabled services so that's that's still happening but there's been a slight change more towards the development side and so on so what I'm saying is if you look just look at the last 30 years in the city of Bangalore there's been tremendous change happening the city has exploded in terms of number of people people from all over the country all over the country and many parts of the world have moved to Bangalore all kinds of you know the large multinational corporations opened up and so it's the city in one way is booming but then there are also lots of challenges for the people so why is all this important well as a church as a christian ministry we are impacted meaning we have to be able to serve the people well they need that different the times are different we have people to release towards changing the city so how the church does its ministry should adapt towards happening in the city right we can't be doing ministry the way we've ruined it in the 1980s right today things have changed people's needs have changed even the young people in the city they actually things have changed and so what we do how we serve how we minister how we look at the city you know what should change we should see what's happening in the city and then begin to minister to people and meet the needs address the needs from a biblical perspective preach the gospel in a way that is relevant to their needs and then we all know the last almost two years now almost two years the pandemic hit so again that has impacted every part of the world we have impacted our city again so you know a lot of people have been affected in many different ways and people have lost their loved ones family incomes have been affected household incomes have been affected and a big impact of the pandemic has been on the mental and emotional well-being of people it's a big thing that means people have been affected mentally and emotionally because of the lockdown I'm not saying other things have not happened yet they may have lost loved one opposed to them but mentally and emotionally they've all been impact every one of us all of us have been affected you know and how do we keep our sanity how do we keep our mind stable when you know we can't do the things we normally would like to do and and and so things are different now in the city so what we should be praying about now is God how do we reach our city now things have changed people are going through different kinds of challenges right now because of the pandemic every city every part of the world has been affected how should we adapt to what is happening so that's what we want to talk about and we discuss the natural dynamics of the city so let me just share this the pdf I will highlight when we say natural dynamics what are some of the things we should be looking at and then we will develop this for next week so when we talk about you know the natural of course we we have to also talk about spiritual dynamics which will come in the next chapter there are natural and spiritual dynamics over a city by natural dynamics what do we mean we mean okay a little little bit about the history right I'm not saying you need to know everything but just a little bit more importantly what's happening right now you know what is a political environment in the city or in that region what's the economy like what are the demographics meaning the age distribution of people the cultural backgrounds and so on what are some of the socio-economic issues what are the challenges people are facing and now because of the pandemic you know many of these things have been affected what about the education what about the distribution of education institutions where are the schools and colleges what are the major industries and where are the industrial hubs that are in the city what about women how are they being treated what about unemployment what about you know the disabled population prison system that you may look at some other things and I've just mentioned a few like you know what are accident rate homelessness orphans and other things these are all the natural dynamics of the city that we must be aware of and you know it doesn't mean you know you think what the whole I mean you can look at the whole city but at least be aware of you know the areas where you are ministering and try to understand you know this is what is happening in the kind of people that I am ministering because now once you want to understand that why is that important I want to understand the national dynamics of the city when you're planning to start your business one it's going to help us get feel for the city as a whole okay this is injured what's happening in my city these are challenges you know so today when you talk about Bangalore you know Bangalore has a high suicide rate drugs is a big problem here mental health issues are a big challenge here you know so these are certain things we would talk about and we have a high suicide rate for teenagers for you know young people you know it's among highly ranked in this in the country so that these are things we need to address so get a feel for the city then pray for the city so this again God how do we reach people in this area you know or reach people in certain areas that are on your heart then as you begin to pray God will place specific areas in needs of the city right so you know remember we're not going to solve all the problems of the city of you know that's not it but as you begin to just pray for the city God will place certain things he wants you to do you and I are not saviours you and I are not going to save the whole city but God is going to use us in specific areas and for certain needs so that's what we want to know God what do you want me to do what are the specific needs you want me to address for my city right so as you begin to get a feel of the city begin to pray for the city God will place certain things for you to he'll give you your assignment for your city our community and then along with that you'll be able to develop strategies to minister in the city or to the people in the city right so it's important for us to understand the natural dynamics because then it's going to help guide what we are going to do in the city right we will get into the details of how we do this later on but I just wanted to you know this is just to help us say that look as we prepare to minister in the city that two areas we need to look at we need to look at the natural dynamics we also need to look at the spiritual dynamics what's happening spiritually in our city as we prepare to start working and we will get into the details of how to do that okay any questions before we close in prayer today any thoughts any questions did everybody understand when we said natural dynamics of the city you understood what we're talking about yeah all right good yeah I see it let's take a moment to just pray together and you know we will pick this up we'll expand on this uh next week can somebody close in prayer and dismiss us please connan joe would you like to please pray and dismiss us no connan sorry uh this okay never mind maybe um can I ask somebody else to pray then not able to all right okay I understand uh yeah can Dave can you pray and then give a close your connections okay by the way come before you we thank you Lord for today and for for the class today Lord Jesus we thank you that we're getting to know about the church planting the ministry Lord God and especially the urban church planting Lord Jesus we renewed today Lord Jesus that we have a heart for the city Lord Jesus and just each one of us in our own different distinct city Lord Jesus and help each one of us to understand your purpose and your your will for our city Lord Jesus so that we can put your your wills for our our city and for our country Lord we want to thank you once again for today's lesson and today's what we've learned today Lord Jesus let that be in our hearts and in our minds so that we can follow through Lord Jesus in your name we pray amen all right thank you thank you Karen Prince thank you each one


Good morning. My name is Jason Embry and I am a member of the LBJ Future Forum Board and I want to welcome you all and thank you all for being here this morning. Thank you for joining the Future Forum for our conversation, The Future of Texas. The Future Forum is an organization that brings together individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and points of view to discuss local, statewide, and national topics that affect us today. Our goal is to create civil, informed, and bipartisan discussions which is needed now more than ever perhaps. The Future Forum's events are made possible by our incredible members and sponsors, including Texas Monthly, Carbock Brewing, Austin Wine Merchant, and Joe Cook's catering. A special thanks to the Texas Tribune for co-sponsoring this this morning's conversation. If you are not a member, I strongly encourage you to sign up before you leave. Members enjoy the best of what Future Forum has to offer, including first access to events in happy hours, networking opportunities, and benefits at the LBJ Presidential Library. Upcoming events will explore the first anniversary of the Austin package bombings and the reflection of racial bias in the media on April 2nd, our 6th annual Easter Egg Roll on the lawn of the library, which is on Saturday, April 20th, and our annual Women in Leadership conversation slated for May. I'm incredibly excited to hear from our guests today, four of our esteemed state legislators speaking about what's ahead this legislative session. We have an excellent panel of legislators who have taken time out of their very busy schedules to be here, and we are very grateful for these four outstanding legislators. I also want to recognize one other member of the legislature who is in our audience this morning, Representative Vicki Goodwin from here in Austin. Member Lyce. Thank you, Representative, for being here this morning. Please keep in mind there will be time for questions at the end of the panel. And now I'll turn it over to Alana Rocha, multimedia reporter for the Texas Tribune, to introduce our guests and moderate our discussion. Good morning. Well, we'll get started with the panel introductions and then dive right into the questions. There's a lot to cover even at the stage in session. Seated next to me, Seated next to me, what do you guys want me to, they warned me, is a state representative Cheryl Cole, Democrat out of Austin here, first elected in 2018 to serve House District 46, which covers East Austin, Flugerville and Mainer. She's serving on three committees this session, county affairs, redistricting, and ways and means. You work as an accountant and attorney and you were the first African-American woman elected to the Austin City Council where she served for nine years, last three years Mayor Pro Tem. Welcome. Seated next to her is State Representative John Sirier, Republican out of Lockhart, where he served House District 17, which covers five counties east of Austin since 2015. This session, you're chairing the Committee on Cultural Recreation and Tourism. He's also a member of Juvenile Justice and Family Issues. Business owner and in 2017, you joined the Texas State Guard obtaining rank of captain. Seated next to him, State Representative Angie Chen Button, Republican who calls Richardson home. She's served House District 112 in the Dallas area since 2009 and currently serves as chairwoman of Urban Affairs, member also of the Higher Education Committee. With the background in public finance and management sciences, she worked for Texas Instruments and has held several community positions in the Metroplex. And last but not least, State Senator, State Senator, pardon me, Jose Menendez, Democratic lawmaker that's represented the San Antonio area in the legislature since 2001. In 2015, he moved over from the House to the Senate, Senate District 26, which covers a large swath of Bear County. This session, Senator Menendez has been appointed to sit on four committees, Administration, Business and Commerce, Intergovernmental Relations, Veterans Affairs and Border Security. He works as the Vice President of National Title Services. Let's start by thanking all the panelists for joining us this morning. Now, the 2018 midterms clearly changed the priorities of the session. Everybody keeps using the cliche bread and butter, whether the bread is the school finance and butters, property taxes, you decide. But let's start there, two big tough issues. All of you have experience working in local government, obviously, in your communities. Representative Cole, you sit on ways and means of the session. You have that background in local government. Is the state exhausting time and energy trying to regulate a tax that it doesn't set necessarily? I guess I don't know what you mean by doesn't set. I do think that there is definitely a drum beat in the community to deal with property taxes. And so I think that is a topic. It's just a question of how we deal with it and having served so long at the local government level. I understand the pain of unfunded mandates, the need for local control and want to try to bring a balance to the discussion. Representative Button, you've talked about the shift in local control. What are your concerns going into this issue? I mean, these are two tall orders and that are very much intertwined. Yeah. I'm so happy you asked me this question. And my point is that you've got to have a balance. There are some basic rules. For example, like recently real heated, it's about the short term rental. And you can see the perspective on both sides. It's very likely we're coming through my committee, so I'd like to address that. But then you got to have some basic standards, basic policies to level the playing field. But on the other hand, you do have to recognize the individual nature of the cities, just not the one size fit.  And we had a real good conversation the other day. For example, like in Austin, the so-called the second type of rental, which is like people buying the property. And then they use that property almost full time renting out for the short term vacation home like that versus somebody staying over there. And there's a lot of different issues. But then you look at cities like Gaviston, it's a vacation city and also Centennial to a certain degree. So how we can do a really a balanced approach, make sure we still have a basic standards throughout the entire state to maintain the quality, but also allow the local elected officials because they know their city the best and they are close, close, much closer than we are. And then for them to make a decision and it's kind of like, you know, kind of like it's an act, it's an art. OK, so it's not that easy to set a straight line, but we're working on that diligently and she can testify there. Representative Siria, you're nodding a lot. You represent a growing corridor east of Austin and San Antonio. What are the mayors and local government officials in your area telling you because obviously the Senate Property Tax Committee got an earful last week before that passed out of that committee? You know, it's obviously this was the big, big topic also to last session. I am very excited that we are taking on, like you said, it's two big issues with school finance and then property tax issue. And they are intertwined, definitely intertwined. I'm just glad that we're focused on that and all three groups are focused on from the governor, Senate and the House working together because this is the kind of issues that we do need to be working on. Some of the same concerns that even I had last session, I was a former county commissioner. So I understand, especially from a rural county, I understand what those pressures are and some of the, especially with a growing county and a growing district. But I think the big piece about property tax reform or what we're working on right now is that it's long term. I believe we need to be real careful about what is said because I know myself and others will be looking at our property tax bill and going, wait a minute, it didn't go down all this much or it actually went up a little. It's really a long term look because if we don't do something now in 20 years, 25 years, we're going to be really in trouble as a state. So it's really looking at and having the discussion and doing some policy right now that will help us, not in the short term, but in the long run. Is there a concern, just kind of the message here and the marketing that you might upset leaders within your district and then again, nobody is seeing tangible relief in their bills, Senator Menendez? Sure, obviously that has to be a genuine concern. I think what I loved hearing so far, I've been taking notes and so I love hearing not talking about unfunded mandates, local control, local officials know their city's best. I mean, I think the representatives are spot on and, you know, as a former councilman and someone who understands that you have to, you know, they're there in the community all the time. So one of the things they could easily do, if we start piling on and doing these things, making caps that are unreasonable, taking away their control, then it's in order to balance their budget. If they want to say, well, we can't keep that library open anymore, the swimming pools aren't going to be open anymore, the parks aren't going to be funded anymore. All of a sudden, well, and this is all thanks to your legislature. You know, so there's an ability for them to show the community that because the legislature chose to do things differently that we could end up paying a price politically. One of the things that I've been very appreciative of, I've been hearing that the House wants to handle public school finance first, and I think that's having the priorities in the right order. I think what I'd like to see us do is, so that's fine that the property tax reform, we all need to slow that train down. I get that, I agree. But if we don't get public education right, talk about really messing this state up. That's where, if you look at the common denominator of people in jail, it's low educational attainment. And the inverse is the same, high educational attainment means high socioeconomic attainment. So we have got to do public education first because then we'll know how much we need to pay for the system that we want. But a bill has yet to be filed on that front, and we're hearing it could be hundreds of pages long. Just this week we saw a Senate Finance Committee, I guess, or Tuesday, so yesterday, pass out a pay raises bill. There's some different schools of thought on, you know, the Senate having kind of just an across the board, $5,000 annual pay raise. The House might think differently as far as merit pay or as Dallas ISD has done, kind of putting the best teachers in the worst schools and getting better results. What do you think? This is them learning from my son, show and tell. Senator, you're absolutely right about we need to address the school finance first. And guess what? You're not allowed to take those out of the members' land. Well, I take it back and I reuse that every time. Recycle that, right. Speaker Dennis Bonnan, he has been so gracious, and he wants to remind everyone, you know that, you walk into the, you know, we have this little members' lunch. You can get some drinks or some light food once you get about to burn down, okay. And he has those cups for coffee and water and printed right here. School finance reform, the time is now to remind us. It's kind of like before you can drink this cup of coffee, you read this. So it's that important, okay. Then back to your question, actually, my husband and I, while we were driving here, where the first one showed up because we're early birds. Super early, which I don't appreciate that much. And we were talking about the Senate in the past, you know. I do understand the Senate's position. But then when Governor, he was getting a small group of the representative together. You remember the meeting we had? No lunch, just a meeting. No, he did point out, but my district is in the suburb of Dallas. But we did know a lot of things going on in the DISD. DISD used to have such a bad reputation.  But now it's changing with this new approach about how to incentive. And the one thing I find extremely important, when we talk about incentivize the good teachers, not just the pay, pay is great, but also the respect. And from my charming English, you all can tell that I wasn't that lucky to be born in this country. I was born in Taiwan. In the Chinese Taiwanese culture, teacher profession is the best. And the most important character in the 5,000 years Chinese history is Confucius. And guess what? He was a teacher. So you got to have this respect in addition to the monetary pay. Although the financial side is equally important. So I do understand that. But I also agree with the result. It's the true result from Dallas, DISD. So we got to be open minded. And this is still the beginning of the session relatively. So I think a lot of things that can work out. What do you think? I'll let her do that. Unless you're ready for me. I usually do what she says. I'm just going to actually ask to represent Cole and then come to represent Sirier. But you have a lot of disadvantage schools within your district. What are your concerns about this omnibus legislation that's supposed to cover it all? Well, I have, or I'm about to file a bill that says we've got to stop looking at these districts just as a whole district. Because I have schools in my district that are just as bad and worse than all the money that we send out to others disadvantaged schools. So what my legislation would propose is that we look at those and a certain percentage of those we would get credit off of our recapture amount. Because it does not make sense for Austin to have a $600 million check that it writes to the rest of the state. And it still has a $200 million problem.  I mean, it would be nice, but even the leadership has said that's not going to happen. Is that correct? Well, you know, the issue I think for all of us and what I'm hearing from many people is the pressure on the local taxpayer has gotten almost just unbearable. Okay. And that's that's regardless of neighborhood. It used to be at one point you'd hear a lot of complaining from large landowners, business big businesses, refineries. We're hearing it all the way down to families that have held their homes for 50, 60 years and done nothing to them. They're fearful of not being able to stay in their home. But by the same token, Texans also know that the schools that are having challenges, whether it's yours or DISD or SISD or Edgewood, or the schools and Chairman Sirius district, they need to be those kids need to have an equal opportunity to to as bright a future as their potential will allow them to have. In order to do that, though, we have to focus on the school. So with a big issue recapture, as we all know, came about because the system was inequitable. Schools, it was a lottery on whether where your parents live, whether you got a good education or not. As a state of Texas, that is bad public policy and it's bad for our future. I think if we say because we don't know no neighborhood has a monopoly on smart kids and every kid should have an opportunity to fulfill his or her potential. So I think we can as long as we can ensure equity statewide. So whether you want to call it recapture or Robin Hood, whatever it is, I understand your frustration. But we have to make sure that all our kids are treated the same and given that same opportunity to succeed. I think it's part of reason why the public school systems come under attack because people feel sometimes trapped in underperforming schools. So the mistake we've made rather than improving the schools, we created a separate system. And we're divvying up the same amount of dollars. And so we have got to be smarter about this. We can all, we have the brain power to do it. We just need the political will. Well, speaking of that, I mean the political will, all the big three representative or House Speaker Dennis Bonham, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Governor Abbott are all on the same page. How I guess represent Syria talk about the dynamics this session between the two chambers between the big three and how much that counts for getting these big orders done. Yeah, it's, I don't know how to describe it other than it's really a breath of fresh air. I mean, especially for us members that have been here. One of the things that I always talk to our new members is saying, hey, this is different. And I saw Jason earlier and I told him that I was going to be talking about this because I do speak about this quite a bit about the decorum and the culture right now in the House. I was telling Jason because he used to work with Speaker Strauss and nothing against speakers. You know, this isn't going against Speaker Strauss at all, but it's just different. You know, it's a change. It's a big change with with Speaker Bonham.  And so he's seen three different speakers during his tenure in the House. So he's seen a lot of changes. He's seen a lot of things that worked and he's seen a lot of things that probably didn't work. And I'll have to tell you, as a member that's been in for just a couple of sessions, last session didn't work. Last special session, I call it the special special session, didn't work. And it's it for a lot of us, we were especially, you know, we all make extreme sacrifices to be able to do this, to do this and be here. And I know for for many of us, if not all of us, you know, if you're going to do the sacrifice, you better get, you know, you better see results. And that's one of the things we're seeing now. We're able to see that we're working together. Like we spoke about earlier, is that now that you have two big topics that need to be worked on, we've got those in front of us. But just the decorum, and I call it the culture of the House, it's just really good. And of course, it's going over into the Senate. We're all feeling it too, you know, from all three, from all the way around. How much of it though is where we're at in session right now? Okay, so yeah, people go, oh, it's the honeymoon period, right? You know, oh, it's just the honeymoon period. No, it's really different. And maybe I'm just the optimist or or whatever. And you could help on this, but it is it is just yesterday, for instance. So I'm a new chairman and we have we have monthly or excuse me, weekly chair meetings or whatever with the speaker has these weekly meetings just kind of talk about what's coming up with the leadership and things like that. Well, yesterday, Speaker Bonin really it's only our third meeting had all members meet. And so we met, we met with the speaker and kind of speaker Bonin rolled out, you know, what he sees coming up. And also to had our parliamentarian speak about decorum and what things that we should be doing. And I literally had some, I had a freshman and I had also a senior member go, I never knew that. And I go, I didn't either because we were never told, you know, so one of the things that the speaker has done extremely well is obviously, you know, Speaker Bonin's got the experience. He's got the leadership skills. But one of the leadership skills that that's being amplified right now is he can communicate. He does such a great job of communicating the vision and where we're going. And I just I'm so excited about what we're getting done and just how we're working together and how the leadership is able to bring everybody together right now. So I don't I don't think it's a honeymoon period or I don't think it's just because this part don't get me wrong. And this is one of the things that the speaker brought up just yesterday and keeps the thing going, which is we will have some very tough discussions. We will have some things that we will have to debate. But now's the time to build those personal relationships to understand each other and get to know each other better. So when we do get into those tough discussions, we can realize that, hey, we're still friends and we still can work together and and to get the common goal completed. Representative Cole, you were going to add something. I agree with everything Representative Sirier just said. I just want to emphasize that the change in the leadership, especially being led by Speaker Bonin in unity and getting something done in our relationships is really not just a reflection of him. It's a reflection of y'all and the election and the memo that the voters sent, which I say starts with this is not Washington. And that went to both parties. And what you see most on the Republican side, I believe is they got the harshest memo. But even on the Democratic side, and I've kind of been a part of that thing too, you know, the worst thing we can do, the worst strategic mistake we can make is let them be nicer than us. There are a few, if any, polarizing issues on the agenda of this session. Representative Button, is there a risk of overcorrecting and potentially alienating a huge part of your voting block on the right? This is really a tough question, you know, but I believe if you serve with all your passion and all your heart and get close to your voters, you will come out of the solution. Now you can please everybody. For example, the Democrat, not speaking on anybody, the Democrat caucus review the Dale plan for the finance, school finance reform. And you look at the list, there are several items, very, very good items. And, you know, especially the food day, the pre-k, that kind of, because I was one of the first Republicans not only raised my hand, but also got up, says, hey, the half-day, the pre-k, which the governor proposed was an excellent idea. But you look at the individual items, many of them are really, really good. But then you only have a limited budget. And all constitutions say we have to have a balanced budget, which I'm very, very proud, goes back to that Washington, D.C., is not a good model for us to follow. Okay, so you got to make a decision which way you're going to pick. And everybody has different arguments and different points of views. And we can all work together. So I really, really, we're trying to butter up our speaker, prepare for the next time, the committee assignments. No, you're just kidding. Because we're truly, truly marking. He made it very, very clear when the press conference come out. And he said, we are not talking about a Democrat finance reform plan, or Republican finance reform plan. Okay, we are talking about the Texas finance reform plan. And I thought that is exactly the message he made. And we got to work together. Not everybody will be happy, okay? But then with limited resources, you got to pick the right way to allocate. And we start to talk. And I know that somebody was joking about once Chairman Huberty starts to do his hearing. It's probably assumed that the members in the committee, they're not going to sleep. It will be 24 hours. Who knows? And then another topic is tomorrow. Ways to mean good luck tomorrow. It's going to be a late one. It's going to start with Dale at the property reform. So it's going to be long hours. But then I think even the long hours, exhausting hours, we need to appreciate that everybody come to the committees, present their ideas. Because that's how, you know, coming from once again, now that I like to bring out my background, because I do think I have a different perspective. You look at the way I grow up, you know, Taiwan is a democratic society, you know. But now to this degree. So when you see people are so much into the political process, try to make sure that you have a voice into the system. And then the country, the state, the community get the benefit. I tell you what, you know, democratic system might not be a perfect system, but it is still the best system because everybody gets to talk. That's right. Yeah, so I just love it so much. Well, and we're talking, like I said, about a bill potentially hundreds of pages long. The Bill Filing Deadline, of course, is next Friday, March 8th. Senator Menendez, you've talked about pre-care. Are you going to see that as a separate measure that hopefully maybe passes, you know, separate from this big omnibus bill? There have been many leaders on the issue of pre-care. You know, Senator Zaferini has a modification. She's been working on it for a long time. I know you've been a leader on the issue. We've been espousing the benefits. I see full-day universal pre-care, in my opinion, it brings so many benefits. I think of it as an economic development tool. I think if you think of the fact that I also think of it as strengthening our community. So people buy homes and neighborhoods with good schools. And so if you get universal pre-care, in my opinion, once these three and four-year-olds get into the system and they get into first grade, their scores are going to be better. They're going to be better students. They'll be better used to it. They'll be getting acclimated and having those friendships and having those life skills to get along. And so I don't think it's right that we've limited pre-care only to a certain groups of taxons. I think all Texans pay their taxes. They've paid for those school buildings. We should have pre-cays in neighborhoods where you can walk your kid to school. And that would then, in full-day, allow someone actually to maybe take on a second job or get a little more income that maybe they couldn't. And with unemployment as low as it is, I think it's an opportunity to help people, to do things, maybe to start up a second business or do something from home. I think it's just the right thing to do. And now Chairman Siri and I were talking about this is the session to fix a lot of financial issues. This is the session to invest. And one of the things I love hearing the representatives and that I love the working together sort of reminds me of 2001, my first session in the House. Speaker Laney was there. There were 78 Democrats, 72 Republicans. The balance was so close that you had to work together. And things worked so well, issues got vetted. And I think the only partisan thing we had on that year was the redistricting bill. And other than that, things worked smoothly. Which is, unfortunately, in my opinion, we should take out of our hands there's a better way to do redistricting that really is more respectful of the communities and lets voters pick their electeds and not electeds pick their voters. If you look at all the gerrymandered districts that we have, I think it's very disrespectful to see how we sometimes draw those lines. Is there the political will, the session I checked last night, and there's so far been 31 bills filed related to marijuana. Whether it's legalizing medical marijuana, expanding the Compassionate Use Act, the Senator Menendez has filed. Representative Cole, you filed a few that you said surprised you and got so much attention, but everything from decriminalization to legalizing it for medical use. But the one that you co-authored, HJR21, has gotten a lot of attention sending the issue of medical marijuana legalization to voters. Talk about that. I'm very excited about that bill. The part that I'm shocked about is I have spent 92% of my time with my legal background and CPA background thinking about these formulas. And I filed a marijuana bill, and then all of a sudden, everybody wants to see me. So I'm done with that stuff. We'll let the brains.  It was very exciting. I just think the tide has changed in terms of the way the country, and we're debating that at the state level about how we feel about marijuana, and definitely the decriminalizing part of it I think will pass. And I'm really optimistic given the results, and they sent me polling about the legalized part. And so I came this close yesterday at the big PTA rally, and Chairman Huberty had spoke, and then I spoke next of like, ask him if we can just pass that bill. But I didn't do it. Not the great place to do it. Yeah, that would be a great place. Well, there were little kids there. But I sure thought about it. Representative Sirier, do you think there's the political will on the right to get some of these measures passed? Yeah, you know, on the medical marijuana side of it, yes. We saw some of that with the release of the oils and things like that. I still feel like there is a lot to look at and where the constituents get tied up into it as they, when you start talking about medical marijuana, obviously they start getting nervous about just recreational. But no, I've seen it just in the short time I've been in the house, I've seen it loosen up a little bit. It's really just an education, right? It's more of an education process and it takes time. And you're watching some of the, I would say, some of the do's and don'ts of what the other states have done. And so we're learning from that as well. So, yeah, I do. I see that we're going to each session, it's going to, on the medical marijuana side of it. Not the decriminalization? On some of it, like the amounts and things like that, yes. I see that happening too as well. But have you heard from your constituents on this issue? Well, it's pretty much similar to the chairman just mentioned. So I don't have additional to add on. But I do have to compliment on chairman Stephanie Clark, when she was working on the early stage, how to make sure that people understand the medical marijuana impact and needs in our community, especially when you see some people just absolutely suffer and kids as well. And she put in a lot of effort. And, you know, so I totally understand. But as to what's going on in the future, that I think chairman made a real good statement that there's a lot of things that need to be watched. But also on the other hand, you also want to be careful like everything I do, I just always want to make sure we have a right balance. But then the definition of a right balance can have a different interpretation. And so that's why it's very important to have your ears open and listen to the constituents and listen to people who have the first contact about the issues. Senator Menendez, I spoke with you even before session started. You filed a bill to expand upon the Compassionate Use Act, which is for a very narrow part of the population, those with intractable epilepsy. Why start there and just kind of expand upon that to get this done? So this, let me see, we're in 2019. It's the 18th year. And I've noticed that the best ways to get things done in certain legislative sessions depends on a step that says you said yes to this. How can I get you to understand? So what I see is exactly what you said about what Stephanie Click did with the people who are suffering, people with epilepsy. The question that I have is if you have cancer, disease worth any less than people with epilepsy, I say no. If you have MS, does your disease mean any less than that? If you have Parkinson's, do you have it? So there's so many people. And my question is why are we, as legislators, telling doctors how they can practice medicine? And so my thought is we've already said, we've already said as a legislature, and the governor signed the bill, signed a medical compassionate use act for children or people with intractable epilepsy. So why do we get to pick winners and losers of diseases? Who is most worthy? And so I think that we, and I've heard people say, the science, I'm in agreement. I'm all about medical, I'm all about the science, but I know for a fact there are many people who would do so much better with using this natural product rather than being on opioid narcotics. We have an opioid epidemic. I've had many pain specialists tell me to help them get people off the opioids. And if we want to, that's killing people. And no one has died from an overdose of marijuana. So there's just, I love the word balance. I think there's a lot of balance. And you said common sense earlier. I love using common sense. And I bet you I could get you all polling data that would show in every one of our districts the people would support medical use of marijuana probably with 70%. In those liberal states of Oklahoma and Arkansas, we pass with 60. Montana has done this. We would be the 34th state in the nation to approve a use of medical marijuana. So we're not blazing new trails here. And I think it's time for us to just take a deep breath and know our constituents will trust, they trust doctors and they would trust us. Now, no one's talking about recreational, but I will tell you this, you can go to any high school kid in your districts and ask them, do you know who sells pot in your school? Every one of them knows. So the people who are trying to get stoned are getting stoned. This is not about that. You know who's not using marijuana? Law-abiding citizens. Law-abiding citizens are the ones that say, no, it's illegal, I won't do that. My father-in-law had cancer, he was dying and the narcotics were horrible and he'd either be in pain or asleep because of the narcotics. You know, the question, the conversation came up. Do you want to go to a different state, do you want to do something? He said, no, it's illegal and I'm in too much pain and other people are leaving Texas for their family members. We can do better. We are smarter. We can do better. And I agree that this is not about recreational, this is about a doctor, this is about adults making decisions about what's best for their health. We'll pause there real quickly. We have about 10 minutes left. We are sending a mic around. If you have questions, there's a couple there in the back. Let's start with the gentleman in the far back. Thank you for being here today. I got a question back on school finance and taxes and property taxes. I guess there's a general consensus that the driver for taxes are coming from the school districts and the state has not put its share in. And I read an article the other day though that said that we have a internet sales tax now in the state, but the comptroller, while he's collecting it, is not being as aggressive as other states are. And there's a whole pot of money that hasn't been collected and redistributed to local governments. So my question is how do you justify raising or allowing the rollback election when they're not getting the proper resources right now that should be collected by the state? Who'd like to? Yeah, Representative Button. Actually, were you there last night? Depends. Okay, which one? Somewhere last night. Depends where there is. Actually, there are some talks and I didn't get permission to announce some of our members are working diligently in this field. Their approach is, yes, we try to get more money, okay, but if we have to, not enough money, then we have to go to the tax swap. So what will be the potential area? And in this case, it will be a brand new resource. So, you know, this wonderful colleague of mine, he has been working diligently. They got a lot of good data information by working closely with the comptroller's office to think about. So, yes, we are working on the issue, but is that maturing enough and it's the right time to announce that, you know, he hasn't, you know, officially filed a, you know, so I think I need to respect the privacy he has at this time. Thank you for your question. Yes, right here. Yes, Texas is a doctor. They go up 60% of all census 25 to 34 would have a post-secondary degree of some sort by the year 2030. Yet Hispanics and African-Americans are only achieving a post-secondary degree of about 13% five years after high school. So in 30 seconds or less, we would be trying to address two things that you would do to address this problem. I've got three. So 30 seconds or less. Three very quickly. Number one, I have a bill. One of the things that frustrates me is why aren't we telling all high school students that if you don't take Algebra II, you're not going to be eligible for top 10 or some other scholarships. Why don't they find out about it till it's too late? That's, it's unconscionable. It's wrong. We need to tell these kids because they have the capacity to do it. They're just not being told and they're kids. They're 14. They're choosing not to. Number two, why don't we institute, like the state of Florida did, a first generation scholarship? So in Florida it started a dollar for dollar where the state would put up a dollar for every dollar that a state, community college, or university would raise from the philanthropy or private sector. That would be scholarship money to a first generation student regardless of where they came from in the state. If we do, now it's so successful, the state's putting up $2 for every dollar the school's raised. Currently there's a philanthropist who's set aside here in Texas, $15 million for first gen scholarships, for first gen students. If we at the state can pass this bill and create this, we'd have $30 million overnight for scholarships for first generation. Regardless of what district they come from, regardless of what they look like, what their last name is, whatever. The other last thing, many students of color or other disadvantaged backgrounds, a flat tire could be, they're not going to school, a broken transmission, an emergency. Higher Education Coordinating Board has realized that sometimes we need small grants to help kids get to school, finish their classes, not drop out. We're working on a bill with Higher Education Coordinating Committee right now to get some small grants for students for emergency situations. We don't want hardworking kids who maybe are putting themselves through college or working hard to get there, and they're in their senior year, they're in their junior year, some life unexpected emergency happens, and they drop out and never come back to finish. And I'll just finish with this, Ivy League schools, you get into an Ivy League school, that school wraps around you, your graduating becomes a source of pride or they get looked down if they don't graduate you. We should be doing the same thing in Texas. If we let a child into UT or A&M and we say to them, you're good enough to be here, we should wrap services around them, we should do intrusive advising, we should make sure that we've done everything we can so they graduate. Getting them enrolled is not, we shouldn't beat our chest of enrollment, it should be graduation rates. Representative Button, did you want to add? Yes, very much, because I serve on the Higher Education Committee for two sessions, and I'm very passionate about that. Two points. First, Algebra II. I was one of the few people, you remember several sessions ago when we strength the five testings, 15 into five, okay? I was one of the people actually walking on the floor, trying to say, please keep the Algebra II, please keep the Algebra II. But then a couple of reps reminded me, Angie Chen Button, you are a nerd, you love Algebra II, but not everybody does, okay? So I finally have to give up. But go back to, I think there's another issue I'd like to point out is that, especially the underpreveraged students, they're not like us, okay? Well, I might be kind of like underpreveraged students to a certain degree, but then the students, they don't always have parents, friends, relatives telling them, hey, you're about to graduate, this is the field you need to pick up because it's going to utilize your talent. And when you graduate, you're going to have a very marketable, valuable job waiting for you. And Dr. Oliverson, the representative from Houston area, has been working diligently.  So, meanwhile, they incurred significant student loan, and with that kind of salary, if they get, well, right now, an environment is good. If you don't major in good field, you can still get a job. But to pay off that student loan is going to take forever. So, Dr. Representative Oliverson are working on this automatically. The students, when they apply for the college admission, it will lead them to, just a couple of tabs, lead them to a website, give analysis about, hey, this is the field you want to move in. First, are you qualified? What's the future? What can you do about that? The reality of the financial situation. That's right, that's right. Of course, it will be great if you can find an uncle or aunt to sit down with you. In your case, anybody wants to be a lawyer or CPA, just go to you. You can tell them everything. But not every kid is so lucky, especially the ones who need the most advice. They are now getting that. Thank you. Anybody else? Right here? The furthest away. Hi. Arming more school teachers has been proposed as a solution to deal with active shooters in schools. And there's no research to show that's effective. And in reality, I think an armed teacher is more likely to shoot an innocent student bystander or be shot by police who don't understand what's happening. And to be an effective solution to an active shooter. So my question is, would you support measures that would keep guns out of dangerous hands in the first place so we don't have to respond in the schools, such as red flag laws or laws that prevent child access to firearms? Yes. Yes. Representative Cole? Yes, I would. But that's not the focus this session. The focus is on mental health. I mean, we need all of it. I mean, I didn't get to the other question before, but we know certain things. We know that there are different demographics, different racial groups, make-ups, that impact your ability to be educated. So on that front, there are certain small things that we've learned about African-American children, males, hardest to educate.  And so there's little solutions like that that I think we need to spend more time putting into place. I couldn't agree more with the sort of value question about parents and all that, but my answer to that is this. No one has a child. We all have children. They are a gift and they belong to all of us. So it makes... I mean, I had never heard that we're not evaluating the formula again and maybe my bill is the formula. I don't know if it's a freshman to say that, but we have to care rather than that person that kid lives in inner-city Houston and they're facing recapture and so many dollars are going out or if they live in the valley. It's got to be the same analysis or we're suspect in whether or not we're just being political. And we can be political about a whole lot of things, but our kids just don't want them. Representative Siri, I've had some of your colleagues who also represent rural areas tell me that they rely. A lot of their school districts rely on the school martial program past a few sessions ago that allows some people on campus to be armed. Do you see that a lot in your district? I don't see it a lot. I do think that in a rural district it's definitely different. I live out on acreage and things like that and proud to say my wife knows how to use the shotgun and it's different than being inside the city versus... One of our school superintendents said a few years back or whatever, which is kind of what I just said. We're used to having firearms. That's kind of our culture and growing up, especially being in a rural community. So it is different where you're at I've got 23 school districts. That just tells you right there. With five counties I have diverse school districts and diverse needs. Senator Menendez, how does the legislature respond in the wake of the Santa Fe shooting, for instance? Here's my thought. You've heard the representatives say Texas is so large and diverse. Rural, urban, suburban. It's very difficult to come up with a one size fits all solution. Let's try to take this down to the granular cause of this thing. My thought is, as I heard the lady ask the question, as we've talked about right after Santa Fe, there were lots of meetings. We held a school safety meeting. What I believe would be the best thing. We've already had a lot of schools do their hardening in terms of their magnetic doors, their two stage, the cameras, all that stuff. Really what I think would be best is can't we help put more counselors into the schools so that we can address the issue before any one of the student body becomes a shooter. The issue in my opinion is, I think when you're dealing with, say, we're going to put guns in the schools to protect, you're expecting the shooter. So that's after the fact. I agree there has to be some hardening, there has to be some security to keep the kids secure. But a lot of these kids, they know those schools better than any of us, right? That's where they go every day. They know where the soft spots are. They know how to get something in if they want to. They can get around it. The thought is, how do we address these kids? If you look at Santa Fe, if you look at Parkland, you look at all these, every one of these shooters, there were signs. There were signs. And people didn't see the signs. And so I do think that we should use a little common sense when I think we can address gun legislation with like everything else with common sense.   This shouldn't be there right now. The other thing, should kids not have access to unlocked guns? I don't think they should. If a kid comes to any one of our houses, if we're gone and I have teenagers, if they were to host a party and someone leaves the party and gets in an accident, I'm responsible. Why is it any different for if a kid comes and finds a gun and shoots somebody? Why didn't I keep it locked? Why didn't I keep it safe? I think we have double standards that we can approach. But the common denominator, we need to have more licensed health professionals in the schools. The kids are dealing with more anxiety, more pressure, more depression, more stress than they've ever dealt before. And we're not addressing that issue. I don't think well enough. Representative Button, you're working on a mental health approach to the issue this session. I hosted a thing on mental health a few years ago and I had school counselors come up to me and said, you never mentioned school counselors. I think it's because they're seeing now as proctoring tests or advising you on where to go to college. Is there a focus there to reinvest in school counselors? Yes, definitely. You know that Senator Nelson, she has the SB-10 and to make a consortium of 26 different mental health agencies including the Children's Mental Health Institution. Actually I like to refer them as behavior institutions. And so they can consolidate the resources and make something happen. I do want to add a little bit. Dr. Bohnen, he Representative Bohnen, he is working on a school safety program, which is a basic structure and also kind of like an audit and a checklist because of each school you write. The rural schools and urban school there requirements are different but there are some basic plans that we can have audited and also when he mentioned that to me and I say please do not give our school another I'm funded the main day. If you want to do this you got to have a funding for them to make great things happen. So he promised that they are working on that. We just haven't seen the detail yet but I think that he's working diligently. Would you ask him to keep flexibility than that? Because some schools have already done these basic checklists. They should be able to use the money to go hire a counselor if that's what they want to do. He will make it very very flexible. He also said that he's not going to publicize what would be the standard requirements because once you publicize hey somebody can get it and know where are the weak spots that you can get in and that would be bad. He's working on that diligently. Well with that I think we'll have to leave it there for time. Let's have a round of applause for our panelists. Great discussion.