Welcome to this episode of Talk of the Town. It is a legislative update with our state rep or one of our two state reps. Dave Rogers is with us today. Dave, as always. James, pleasure to see you. Absolutely. I'll say Happy New Year. Yeah. Even though we're in the February. Well in the February. Exactly. But I don't think you and I have seen each other yet. It's been right. I always wonder what's the etiquette about that. Like how long can you keep saying Happy New Year but what the heck? I like that idea because we still have some stuff on our website that's basically saying Happy New Year to people. So you're keeping it current. There you go. I appreciate that. There you go. I've also in this little round of conversations with our two reps and our senator, I've been had a chance to kind of delve into a little bit of the fact that all of you have a certain amount of experience behind you now in your respective chambers in the state house. And to ask you, I know you are probably, I think you're coming up to 10 years now, right? That's right. So that's a good solid chunk of time. And congratulations. It's kind of like a nice round number anniversary kind of thing. But I'd like to start, before we start talking about the legislation that will always fill most of our conversation, let me just ask you, how does that feel? How's your energy? Sure. What are you thinking about looking forward, that kind of thing? Yeah. Well, thanks for the question. And it's quite a feeling. When I first ran, as most candidates, I didn't know if I would be elected. My first race was highly competitive, had started with five Democrats, a couple of them dropped out, but still three were left. And then a Republican and an Independent. A lot of good candidates. And so when you talk to the limited group of folks who actually follow this stuff closely, I was kind of an underdog. And so I wasn't at all certain I'd get elected to one term, let alone I'm now in my sixth. And so in a sense, I guess I'm saying it was improbable or at least deemed unlikely at the time that I would get elected. And I've been blessed and fortunate to get this opportunity to do public service, something I've always wanted to do. And I've say I've had a heck of a run doing it. Been able to get a lot of useful things done for the community and for the Commonwealth as a whole. And I'm still energized by the prospect of doing more. And like any job, you learn the ins and outs, where to invest your energy, maybe where your energy is less well invested, how to be effective and to make a difference. And so it's been a great thing to do. And looking forward to this session, which is now just underway. Right. We'll talk about that in a second. Let me just say, though, that's really interesting to me to hear what you just said about your first election. Because I'm sure you haven't had such an uncertain kind of topography since then. Because I personally cannot remember any election local that has involved, sounds like at least at some point, seven different people. That's right. That's right. And yeah, it was highly competitive. And I had a lot of help from a lot of people. I have to be clear that any successful campaign, whether it's school committee or select board, city council, state legislature, governor, president, whatever people are running for, it's a team effort. And the candidate is just really just one component of a team. And I had a lot of help from a lot of people, including right here in Arlington, people who got to know me, my policy platform, the things I was campaigning to try to accomplish. And got behind me, supported me. And so, yeah, it's been great. And being a candidate is hard. I had a competitive campaign last, not this cycle, but the one before. Look, every job's hard, right? I mean, every job has its challenges. But there's something uniquely challenging about being a candidate. I mean, your name is printed on a ballot for all of your fellow neighbors to cast judgment on. I remember reading an interview with Obama, listening to an interview. He lost, you know, he lost for Congress, Barack Obama. And he was fascinating to hear him talk about it. He ran against Bobby Rush. Bobby Rush was an icon of the civil rights movement, a Black Panther. Obama was ambitious and probably against some advice he got, said, you know what, I'm going for it anyway. And he got thumped, two to one. And he talks a lot about it. And I never forget his quote was something, never underestimate how ignominious it is, a public loss that, you know, all your friends and neighbors know about. You walk down the street, which one of my neighbors didn't vote for me kind of thing. But anyway, I, I, I, but it's also exciting and challenging.  And public service has enabled me to do that. You know, before I got elected, we were talking before we went on air. I had a good job, a lawyer, reasonably successful with that. And, you know, but I was itching for a new challenge and new frontier, a new way to use my, whatever talents I may have to try to. And so I'm glad I did it in that. I was a little bit stagnating as a lawyer. Right. Being comfortable can be a little insidious, right? Yeah. That's a great way to put it. Being comfortable can be insidious. I was comfortable, good pay, good, good job. But not really growing, not really challenging myself.  Good God, you don't need to go and run for office. You don't need to be judged by all your friends and neighbors. But, you know, I, this is what I did. And it's, it's been a really unique experience. And it's really in the end, as much as we're talking about me and me running, it's not about me. It really has to be about the people you represent. Right. And trying to make an impact. Trying to make a difference. Because that's what makes it interesting for me when I can have a meaningful impact. Yeah. And I think, if I'm just, you know, on a treadmill, but not really making things happen, then that's, that's no good either.  And again, nice round number and all that. But what it really means in a lot of ways is that you, you know how to get things done in a way that you couldn't possibly when you had a year or two years, three years behind under your belt. So, let me ask you, let's, let's start by talking about, I've gotten an education in how things work in the legislature. And I know that with the beginning of the new term, which started in January, you basically have to start at square one with all the legislation that didn't quite get over the finish line before. And you're not starting at square one in terms of the experience that you've amassed and how you're going to approach getting that legislation passed. You can use all of that hard one wisdom, I'm sure. But in terms of process, things are back to square one, right? That's right. Which, let's start by talking about which are of the, you know, which bills or which subject areas contain bills of yours that, you know, you feel like you've been working on for a while but didn't quite make it over the finish line. And you're really, you know, kind of want to change your flag and make sure, yeah, I'm starting energetically on this, you know, with these things. Well, if I might, I would divide that into two categories. And the first category is I've been reappointed the chair of the Higher Education Committee. So the substantive work of the legislature is done through the committee process. If it's on transportation and the MBTA, there's the Transportation Committee. In my case, I'm the chair of the Higher Education Committee. Of course, Massachusetts is famous not only in the country but worldwide for our private institutions of higher learning. MIT, Harvard, Tufts, BU, Eastern and many others. But we also have 29 institutions of higher learning that are public colleges. The UMass system, nine state colleges and universities and 15 community colleges. And that's primarily what this committee has oversight and also legislation that would impact those institutions.  The so-called millionaires tax, a sur-tax of 4% on incomes above a million dollars a year with the money to go to education and transportation. And so this session as chair of the Higher Education Committee, I hope to work with my colleagues and develop some legislation that will impact public higher education. Because far more as I mentioned all those world-renowned private institutions but far more students from the public colleges and universities stay here. Raise their families here. Have their careers here. Work here. So it's really important that we get it right and that we have thriving public institutions because that is literally the future of the Commonwealth. Those students stay here. Yeah, and those students probably by and large like you were just saying on the whole more of them are from here. You know, kind of have been here for much of their lives. You know, we're again with the private institutions they can come from anywhere in the country in the world drawing out a large part of their student body. But these public institutions really serve, you know, the Massachusetts population in a particular way. That's 100% true and so Governor Healy has a proposal, our new governor for those 25 and over to get free community college to get them back into advancing their skills and their education. There are a number of proposals and the key that the advocates point out and there are a lot of voices a lot of stakeholders but if you listen to the advocates for for students and for public higher education they tend to pick the year 2001 as the benchmark as the high watermark of the state contributing to public higher education and if you look at the data it is true that over time the share that the state now pays has gone down as a percentage and so students are bearing more of the costs student debt we know is in the news matter of fact today I think the United States Supreme Court the President Biden's plan for student debt relief is on the docket and being debated and argued but the very fact that you know we have an American president with a proposal it's at the Supreme Court tells you how big of an issue this is the student debt and how do you finance higher education so that started with your question about what do I hope to accomplish or make an impact and I foresee that we'll do something now exactly what is hard to say it's the session just started right but it is a really interesting moment for you to be reappointed because as you said with the fair share amendment the other way that that is referred to the millionaires tax amendment right or that that passed you should have some money to work with right I mean you should have the means to be able to to get something done like you said or whatever the form that takes is I hope so that's right and we'll see you know there are forecasts about how much the millionaires tax of the so-called fair share amendment would generate but now we're going to start getting the data now the DOR the department of revenue will begin to get monthly receipts to assess how much revenue are we really going to get from this fair share amendment and so we'll have to see the other thing is that this would happen no sooner was the ink dry on the fair share amendment that there are groups and people trying to push back and already chip away like for instance there's a proposal to cut capital gain stacks the short term capital gain stacks that is primarily not totally but primarily paid by wealthier folks so if you get money in from the fair share amendment but you start giving it where are we really going to shake out on new revenue and we'll see I mean there there are tax cut proposals governor Healy ran her campaign on a promise that she would have some package of tax cuts she's now put it forward just I think yesterday or the day before so that will get debated but certainly higher education and my role as chair of the higher education committee I hope to make a difference and then I have a lot of legislation that I filed myself that I hope to move forward some of which I know you and I have talked about before but I'll highlight maybe just a couple things one is access to council you know two thirds of low income people that go to civil legal aid societies for help because they can't afford a lawyer are turned away so for instance in Massachusetts we have GBLS that's the greater Boston legal services we have illegal services these are lawyers who are public service lawyers and provide legal help to those who are so low income they literally cannot afford a lawyer and so they turn away a lot of people so I have a bill that would provide in a limited circumstance for those facing eviction those in housing court would have essentially a right to a lawyer or access to council and if you're a criminal defendant in America and you're accused of a crime but you can't afford a lawyer one is automatically appointed for you we've all heard the Miranda warnings on TV you're watching our favorite shows you know if you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed well the question is what about in civil court what happens to low income people when they go into court and we know in housing 90% of landlords have a lawyer so the folks that control the property and they are wealthy enough or have enough money they have lawyers almost all of them less than 10% of tenants have a lawyer so you talk about a lopsided arrangement you know we all recite the pledge of allegiance and how does it end when we think about America what is America and justice for all there isn't justice for all there's a lopsided system and I've been working to address that it's become one of my signature pieces of legislation when I first introduced it it was sort of me and a couple other people it's like seven years ago but we now have over 200 groups supporting it and this is the most interesting to me we have landlords supporting not all not all landlords but some of the big property owners support it and I think the reason is I know you're a lawyer as well and I've gone to housing court housing court is chaotic it is people spilling out in the hallways on days when there are hearings when there are a lot of cases on the docket and I think a lot of landlords that support it support it because of the efficient administration of justice maybe you can get a clear consistent resolution if there are lawyers on both sides the cases can be processed and move along and a lot of times it's settled like oh look I'm behind on my rent but you have a code violation you fix the code violation and put me on a payment plan I'll catch up on the rent whatever the case may be the lawyers can negotiate a deal keep people in their houses which is what we want we don't want more homelessness we're working on there's a bunch of others one I care about is to do with data privacy I think we've talked about this before and there's a saying we don't search Google Google searches us and the amount of our personal information think about tracking and location you're carrying around a smart phone that tells these companies everywhere you are and I won't go on at too great a length other than to say I think there's a compendium or dossier of information on us that most of us can hardly imagine the amount of information that these companies are assembling about us is staggering every time you watch a YouTube video they know what you're watching, what you're listening to where you're going, who your friends are on and on and then use that to target you to manipulate you and so long story short America's data privacy laws are behind Europe we don't have as much protection for consumers and so I've introduced a bill along with another state representative Representative Vargas from Haverhill working with the ACLU American Civil Liberties Union because they care about privacy and our rights as citizens and that's a legislation that would put some reasonable constraints on our personal information what these companies are allowed to do what they're allowed to do with the information what information they're allowed to collect what notification you get I saw Apple now if you have an iPhone they ask not to track you can click the button that the app won't track you I've hit that button I cannot tell you how many times don't allow, don't allow but that's just Apple and that's just one limited part of your life when you're on your there's what you search online so that's a big, big idea what we're going to do about data privacy and there's legislation also pending at the federal level so we have to be mindful of that but there's room I think to operate here at the state level and do something I really hope you're right Dave though it does feel to me like wow that's a major uphill battle it is because these are powerful companies think about the money that Apple and Facebook and Google I mean the lobbyists have reached out to me I mean I know they're very well represented and to be fair the legislation has to be written in a thoughtful way because this technology also brings us great benefits that's the other thing is that I was going to say that you have on the other side those who would or should be outraged to know all this stuff are you know kind of maybe soft pedaling it a little bit because it's more convenient hey you know oh so they so an ad just popped up on my phone how did they know that I would be interested in that but I am so I'm going to go you know what I mean people aren't necessarily seeing what the threat is even if it is you know very clear to others so anyway well the ramifications are endless about the way society is changing in the way our information is being used but my bill would set up a Massachusetts office of privacy and again set rules of the road and some sensible guardrails about what these companies cannot do for instance can they sell your information to other third parties that had nothing to do with the reason you went online in the first place I don't think so so that's another major bill I filed I did file a bill on rent control which we have as you know a major affordable housing crisis in this state and a matter of fact at the globe just two days ago front page for those of us who still actually pick up a paper although I read digitally too but I know what you're talking about Sunday's paper right front page and there's been so many that we're losing it's not just people of modest means it's middle class people with college degrees who are choosing to move somewhere else because they can't afford the home to buy a home or even to rent something they really like and they're severely sorry I'm just interjecting because that article brought it right home here to Arlington because one of the two or three people that they happen to focus on is the owner of kind of a local Arlington institution right here on Mass Ave and Jason Street Laura's sewing school the woman is having to leave she's more or less my age as well which means she's laid some roots down here and for her to have to take off to Minnesota I think it is I understand why they picked her as one of the people to focus on because that really does drive home what you're saying these are people just like all of us it's your friends and neighbors it's your friends and neighbors and if you were fortunate enough to buy into this market 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or more years ago great but for a lot of others it's causing extreme duress and difficulty and business leaders are also weighing in that this is an economic competitiveness issue it's going to put us at a competitive disadvantage with other states we thrive on high tech and biotech and lots of industries and to attract the kind of workers we need and there was a big report that just came out that did the forecasting the projections of the kind of workers we need in this state looking forward 5 years, 10 years, 15, 20 years and the forecast was pretty dire on our ability to have the kind of labor and workforce development we need to continue to be successful as a state Boston is now second in the country and the state of Massachusetts as a whole fifth in the nation for the most expensive so our biggest city is second and the state overall is fifth and look there are a lot of proposals for how to address this I'm not saying rent stabilization or rent control as it's called is the only answer you probably need a lot of tools in your toolkit and there are a lot of policy ideas to build more some folks say if the problem is housing prices are too high then it's classic economic model supply demand you need more supply, you need more housing but you know that's an idea that's been peddled now for a decade and in and of itself I'm not sure is the solution and I think my bill would not impose rent control or rent stabilization anywhere it's a local option bill let's essentially restore the status quo ante before 1994 when the voters narrowly repealed rent control because rent control you may know this it was only repealed 5149 it was so tight it might have been like 50.5 to 49.5 I forget the exact but it was very close and more than a quarter century ago so I had one gentleman say to me are you repealing the will of the voters if this passes that's over a quarter century ago and passed by the thinnest of margins so I think it's entirely appropriate to revisit it only three cities and towns had rent control when it was the law Boston, Cambridge and Brookline there are 351 cities and towns in our state but only three rent stabilization so if we allow it to come back who knows how many would adopt it but I think it makes sense as a local option and my bill would allow landlords to raise rent but just by a limited amount so I think it makes sense to look at it carefully Mayor Woot, Mayor Boston has a proposal it's getting a lot of attention she's got a little bigger megaphone than I do at the moment for sure but you know I'm happy to have her in the conversation I think I was the first one to use the idea of rent stabilization rent control so we'll see where that debate goes and it is a big deal not just for social justice and economic justice but as I said business leaders are really worried about our economic competitiveness as a state as people are being driven out this is an area where according to studies as you said and what business leaders are forecasting etc it's going to move from this is such a terrible situation to actually we're not able to we're stagnating we're not able to keep growing in the way that we have always been expecting exactly one of the biggest issues this state faces is affordable housing I can't believe we got already to the end of our conversation and I'm sure you have much more to share with us so we'll just have to get you in sooner in the next quarter happy to come back for a legislative update the sequel in a sense make sure we cover everything that we didn't get to today but I do appreciate the conversation I really do especially we took a full third of it probably just to talk about your experience so far over these last 10 years the things you've learned and what you're going to do with that I feel like that was really worth it as well I appreciate the conversation as always so thank you I have been speaking of course to our state rep Dave Rogers he has been kind enough to join us here in studio we always welcome his presence and we always appreciate his time he's a busy man took the time to be with us and to be with you we also appreciate your presence here thanks so much for joining us we'll see you next time I'm James Milan


Hi, I'm Lisa Savage, I'm running for the U.S. Senate under Ranked Choice Voting here in Maine, and I'm here at the Portland Media Center this evening for a People's Summit to have the conversations that don't make it into U.S. Senate debates often. I'm very pleased to be here with Jerry Edwards of the Black-Owned Maine, Black-Owned Business Maine, Black-Owned Maine, sorry, Adam Rice of the Maine People's Housing Justice Coalition and Luke Secura-Flanders of Community Water Justice. We're here to not debate each other, but to have a conversation about what are the needs of our community, and I'm going to ask each of these gentlemen to introduce themselves a little bit more before we get our conversation started. Jerry? Hello, my name is Jerry Edwards. I'm also known as Genius Black. I'm a creator, a music producer and an engineer out in the community, but also I am one of the people who my good friend Rose Barboza who founded and started Black-Owned Maine. She pulled me in from day one, and I helped to launch that locally here. We started here in Southern Maine, but we are a directory of all the Black-Owned businesses in the state of Maine. We also have the Black-Owned Maine podcast, we call it BOMP. You can check that out. And then also, we give grants to families and even financial support to businesses that are BIPOC owned. So out here trying to make a difference, people vote with their dollars, trying to get those dollars to BIPOC businesses and just raise awareness and just help Maine to become a place that is really, really welcoming to Black folks, even though it has this view of many people that there's no Black people here, but they are here. So, yes. Thanks, Jerry. Adam? Yeah. My name is Adam Rice. I primarily work with the Maine Peoples Housing Coalition and another organization called Youth Without Barriers. We're a peer-led group of Portland residents that operate in a non-hierarchal fashion using peer support and mutual aid to provide help and resources to our unhoused community members. Also, I am working with the Church of Safe Injection currently, which is a group doing harm reduction work in the city. And we're working to get some policy change so we could potentially have an overdose prevention facilities in the city and prevent loss of life in many different communities. Thank you, Adam. Luke? Hi. My name is Luke Sikara-Flanders. I'm currently working with Community Water Justice, which is a network of frontline communities across the state of Maine fighting against the privatization of our public water sources as well as the extraction and sale of water for a private profit, namely the bottled water industry. I'm also working with Sunrise Maine, which is a movement led by youth fighting for a Green New Deal and on a more local level advocating for other policies, which bring us through a just transition to a more sustainable economy. I've also worked with a number of other organizations such as the Maine Environmental Education Association, with whom I'm a Maine Environmental Changemaker. I'm worked with Just Me for Just Us. I'm a Maine seed with seeds of peace. And yeah, and a number of other organizations. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Well, Luke, you first came to my attention when I think you were nine years old and you gave a really impactful speech to the Freiburg Town Council, I believe it was. Yeah. It was the Maine Public Utilities Commission. Maine Public Utilities Commission. Yeah. We're discussing a 45-year contract. Nestle was looking to secure a 45-year contract in our town to extract significant amounts of water. And I was testifying in opposition to that because it essentially gave them unfettered access to our area's large aquifer. And eventually that led to an entire process, a huge legal battle, which led to a nationwide precedent sending a case wherein Nestle won. They've now secured a 45-year contract.  Well, I remember one of the really high-impact things that Luke said at the time was he said, if this contract goes through, I'll be 54 years old by the time it ends. You know, and he was in fourth grade at the time, and I was a teacher at the time. I've just retired from teaching, and that really made impact. So sometimes it's like putting things in context that really makes us kind of understand where they're at. Could you tell us a little bit about your business and kind of the context of your music-producing business that you're doing here in Maine, Jerry? Absolutely. I'm a, yeah, one of the businesses I have. As a music producer, again, my name is Genius Black. I'm also an artist. I love to collaborate and synergize a lot. I first started making music when I was 15 or 16 back in Texas. That's where I'm from. And I'd say when I was at Bowdoin College, I used to work at WBOR, the campus radio station. I used to have a recording studio down in the basement, and I spent way too many hours in college in that recording studio, really learning to home my craft as a producer, as an engineer. And I'd say when I was probably like 22, 23, I got really, really serious. And now I'm 39. So I've really been at it for years. And for me, the process of being a creative person and collaborating with people, drawing on other people's energies, helping them to tell their stories, helping them to achieve a vision, because as a music producer, I'm a very vision-oriented person. That for me actually really coincides with the work that I do at Black-Owned Maine. So one thing about Black-Owned Maine as an organization is that we came, we were, we launched this summer. And Rose, my partner, had really wanted to get out and protest. I should say that, you know, I had been protesting out in the streets in Portland for sure. My daughter went to a protest with me. This was after the murder of George Floyd. And I think that there was just this turning point with my energy, a lot of people's energy.   This wasn't realistic. COVID, you know, we're all out there with mask on, trying to have our voices raised. And she came up with the idea to start the business and to start a online directory of all the Black-owned businesses in the state of Maine. The joke is, it's not a joke, but people will say, oh, how many? Can you count them on one hand, maybe two? Well, I mean, we launched with like 60 plus and now there's over 200 businesses on the directory. So for us, it was, it really became a way to collaborate and link up with people and network, but also to specifically support Black and Brown indigenous people in the state of Maine, which there are many, many people, whether it be refugees, people from the South that moved up here, people that were born here, a lot of biracial people. And we think there's a lot of overlooking on the national level. People forget that there's people of color in Maine. And even in the state of Maine, people don't really create spaces for Black and Brown people to be vibrant. And so we want to start in an official way and in an organized way to start to financially make a space for these people to do what they do, but also to just overall for the state of Maine to kind of, you know, after COVID. We know that there's a lot of people who might want to come as tourists, but they don't think Maine is welcome, welcoming to them and people that look like them. We aim to change that both inside of Maine as well as people coming from outside of Maine. So that's the type of work that we do. But again, for me, both in the production and Black on Maine, I'm always in conversations. I'm always collaborating. I'm always trying to feed off of people's energy and see where they're coming from. So I get to live out a lot of just like me, my personality and my talents at Black on Maine. Cool.  The tent in this summer was just one example of a collaboration that you're involved in. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about what was the purpose of the tent in encampment on City Hall? Like, how long did it last? Yeah. I also want to thank Black on Maine, too, because you guys were big donors to our mutual aid tents of supplies and face masks and other items. And you guys really came through for our communities. So I wanted to start with that. Yeah, the general purpose was to highlight how many people are actually forced to sleep outside due to bad policies at the local level. One of the issues that was raised at the time with COVID, the soup kitchen where people were getting food was closed. We had been transitioning to a mobile food delivery service. And the people doing that were stopped by the city via the police. And a lot of people were just like, hey, this is just too much. This is a community that's been wronged for as long as I've been alive by bad policies like this. And so we really wanted to show that. And there's a policy, too, where in the shelters they hand out criminal trespass orders. So there's a lot of people that aren't allowed in these facilities. And when the issue of homelessness is raised, a lot of times the statements we get are, well, there's this many beds open. They should use the shelter. And that's missing from that conversation. The same way things are left out of the debate stage or in Augusta or down in DC at the city level, there's a large number of people that, A, aren't a part of a conversation. And things aren't being said that should be by the people we've elected. So everybody here has some different strategies for sort of getting your voice out there and advocating for the things that you care about. I'm just curious, did any elected officials come down to the tent in when you guys were there for like three weeks, something like four weeks? We were there a little over two weeks. The mayor did have a little listening session one day. It did take a lot of prompting. Jeff Valero still has been in pretty close communication with the mayor since then. I believe Tay Chong and possibly Pius, both also came down there. Pius has been great. He's always that one loud voice that's always standing with the people who demand change. I've had a lot of really good opportunities in the past couple of years to thank him for standing up likewise with the protests about a year ago when they were opening that new ICE facility at Monument Square. Pius was the only one right there with us, cheering us on and saying, this is democracy in action. This is how you change things when they need to be changed. Cool. I'm guessing neither of your US senators came down to. Oh, of course not. I would hope they would, but I don't expect them to know. So look, what kind of advocacy for our water here in Maine would you suggest that we band together and do? I know some of the answers to this because of course your mom, Nikki, has been doing this work for a long time and I've heard some really good suggestions from her. My impression has been that people in Maine don't really realize that our water is pretty much privately owned at this point, privately controlled and we just had a drought all winter and I think you guys told me that a billion gallons of water are pumped out of Maine every year and sold in plastic bottles for profit. Yeah, Nestle or through its brand pull and spring is extracting. I think it's just over a billion gallons a year now out of just 10 locations in the state of Maine. That's 10 too many in my opinion, but yeah, some key things we need to see done. For one, it's the removal of corporate influence in all governmental bodies. I mean, in the state house, we're seeing multiple paid Nestle employees being appointed to high profile positions such as on the Board of Environmental Protection, the Maine Drinking Water Program, bodies which are supposed to oversee that make sure that regulations are followed and that corporations aren't horribly abusing our environment and because the motive of a corporation is to ensure that its profits are as massive as they can be, we simply can't trust paid employees of such corporations to be on our regulatory bodies. It does kind of sound like the Fox guarding the hen house. Exactly, it is, certainly. And also we're seeing public water systems being privatized and we're seeing prices being raised. Recently, the Maine Water Company which is based in Connecticut underwent a merger with a water company that's based in California. So that's emerging of two major corporations and that means that water systems here in Maine are now being controlled by a nationwide corporation. And that's never a good sign that means monopolies are starting to emerge and when that happens, you know that the amount of power we, the people, have over our water systems is shrinking every day. So we need to ensure that public water systems are publicly owned and operated and that means securing funding to improving them because of course there have been a lot of concerns with aging infrastructure and that sort of thing. So we need to, yeah, we need to invest in our public water infrastructure to make sure that people have access. Yes, remind you of CMP which is owned by a multinational energy company based in Spain and pushing the CMP Corridor project on us. I was really disappointed to see a bill at the state level that to make CMP a consumer owned and operated utility that was based here in Maine. It kind of died in committee, didn't exactly die. They said, oh, we'll study it. But I'm curious, Black Owned Maine, do you know, we've heard a lot about the paycheck protection plan and other government supports for business here during the pandemic. Are the businesses that you're working with getting relief from the government? Are they getting help or? I don't actually know the answer for many of the businesses. We're only in so much contact directly with the businesses. But of the ones we know of, I've heard of people that have gotten support and people who have applied and got nothing or just don't even really know about it. So I guess I don't have a ton of details but I feel like it's been a pretty, kind of a mismatch or wishwash. I don't think there's been any consistency to that. I know that there are people that have been trying or even people that have applied for our grants that we are offering that we're also trying to get other types of support and even governmental support that hadn't come through yet. So I do know that some people are struggling. I don't have any percentages or numbers of who has actually received support. I used to own a small business before I became a school teacher. I owned a cafe in Skowhegan, Maine and ran it with my brother for seven years and it was amazingly hard to be successful as a small business in Maine. We did manage it, but only because it was a tourism-based business and we would basically make all our money in about two weeks in the summer. If we did not make that two weeks in the summer, then we did not get through the winter. But how many, I mean, are a lot of these businesses seasonal and dependent on tourism or not necessarily? Not necessarily. I mean, it's a mixture. I mean, we have people that on our directory, for instance, that we have artists, we have people who do hair. Like we were just talking about Rafiki shop out here and they just do these amazing and artistic braids in different styles. So you have people where they really support the local community no matter what. And then you have people that are retailers and people that really are dependent on people kind of traveling up North and things like that in the summer. So I guess appropriately, when you look at all of these businesses across the state of Maine, they really hit kind of all the sectors. Again, I think a little known fact is really how many businesses in Maine are owned by people of color. And it's not just restaurants and maybe the number one or two things that you would expect. So again, I would tell people, go and check out the director and see what's there because really it's all the way across the board. That's cool. Hey, Adam, how is the real estate market in Portland? It's a big, a lot of business interest building, a lot of new buildings going up, a lot of high end housing being built. How is that affecting the decisions that government is making on behalf of the people who live here in Portland? Well, I have my own personal opinion that I think our local government definitely works more for the big developers than it does for the renters or the people. If anybody is still unaware of the people first Portland referendums that they can vote on now, that should be an indication of what the situation is when the people want relief with the rental stabilization, the livable wages and facial recognition software, the climate stuff. And for years now, we've been going to these meetings and presenting solutions and demanding or asking for change and there's never any action. So we do these referendums and the city council has come out to tell people not to vote on the things that have been done in a grassroots way. So it's pretty obvious that a lot of the people we're electing are either intent on doing half measures or just giving us lip service. I don't really know another way to put that. But on the local level, one thing that more people should know is that the way Portland defines affordable housing is workforce housing, which is that value is often comprised of the area median income, which would include like Cape Elizabeth, like the mansions in South Portland, some of the Falmouth, like the whole greater Portland area. So you have like an income requirement to actually rent these units, which could be 60 or 70,000 because the way that they're using the percentage, it actually creates a barrier so the people who need it to be actually affordable can't afford it. And likewise, people who hold rental vouchers and assistance through a lot of these programs like Section 8 or BRAP or Shelter Plus, they could apply for apartments for five years and nobody would take those vouchers. And it's a shame because the assistance that's there is falling through the cracks because there is loopholes in discrimination laws. And then the people we've elected to deal with these problems when they happen are more concerned with just saying, hey, we're working on it than actually really getting systematic change. Yeah. I was really proud to earn a DSA mains endorsement for my campaign. They had a pretty rigorous process where they really wanted to know what your values were and put your money where your mouth is. And then they're five, they kind of warned me, we're not gonna really help on your campaign because we have those five initiatives that we're really working on. I've been amazed at the amount of pushback, the tens of thousands of dollars of advertising money that's been poured into trying to keep these people first initiatives from passing, particularly rent control seems like a huge issue that I see a lot of signs. And it's kind of similar to Nestle. Can I turn on a YouTube video without seeing Nestle saying what a good corporate citizen they are for pumping water out of our aquifers, putting them in plastic bottles, trucking them across our roads and then selling them back to us at a profit. It's hard to be up against big money. And I like the idea that by collaborating and working together with other people, that is our strength, listening to each other, helping each other out. Yeah, so I just had, I have a really good masseuse who's part of Black Unmain and she told me, hey, I got a grant to do marketing for my business. She's super excited, yeah. So you guys have been getting grants, I think, or you've had some success with getting some grant money too. Can you talk about that process a little bit? Cause that's kind of a way of people getting some money to do some good things with it. Yeah, well, so the first thing I'll say, just because we have been blessed and we've worked hard to be in a position where we are, first and foremost, I'll say that we are providing grants ourselves. So if you go to blackonmain.com, you can check out the grants. We're actually changing things a little bit, but there's a family grant and a business grant. So that's something worth looking out because for us, by coming into funds and we know how finances, especially in communities of color, like that's something that tends to leave way too quickly. And so for us, we are ourselves providing grants. I will say that Rose is the one who actually writes most of the grants and things like that. So she would have more information, but I know that a lot of it is just finding, well, first of all, it's finding mentors and people in the community who know more about like being a nonprofit, maybe what you should do next, maybe some of the pitfalls. And so sometimes we have calls and she has a mentor. She works with score. So there's people in the state that help support and they can give you ideas and resources. But then it is just finding grants that you qualify for that were the criteria fit with what you kind of your mission. And there's deadlines and you have to give certain information. And it's not, I mean, it's not, doesn't seem like it's super, super difficult. Finding them, I think can be somewhat difficult. We actually just, I guess I won't say what the grant is, but the other day we were having a great conversation with an organization.  For them, for instance, they were saying, well, we're really trying to support a small group of women, right? With everything you have going on, if there was a group of women who were making these decisions, this would be a fit and it's this woman and this man. All right, cool. That's not a fit. We'll move on and look for other things. That same organization and the representative who we were speaking to, then told us about five or six more grants that not that we would get. Go check on these. Maybe they might fit you, right? So I think sometimes it's about like stepping into that world, networking, asking a couple of extra questions and also just kind of building rapport with people so that they're okay to just maybe tell you a little bit more than you asked for, things like that. At least so far, that's how I feel like it's been going. But we're definitely looking for more sponsors. We're looking for more grants because as we're out here, we're realizing we can't even execute all the ideas we have. We don't have enough time. We don't have enough money. But if we can create, organize better, create more time, maybe get a couple more people on board as well as have more funds, then we can literally help more people and our pushes can go that much further. So yeah, though we're looking for more, I'd say we've done, we've done all right, donations, grants, fundraising. We, early on, we partnered with CFC, Catalyst for Change. Kyle, they're out there in Bedford. Great organization. They do a lot of different clothes that are really on a positive vibe, really about suicide prevention and awareness, really being strong and being a warrior. I just really appreciate the organization. They approached us and had kind of a personal connection to what we were doing. And so we came together with CFC and Black on Main and we kind of made a couple pieces of merch. Like I deserved, I came up with this phrase, don't talk, act. We printed that on a shirt, don't talk, act. And then we sold a bunch of them and raised a couple thousand dollars in a week because I think people are really looking for something that resonates with them. So I guess that would be the other thing I would say, getting grants definitely matters. But I think also you have to find, you have to find your voice, but you also have to find what resonates with people. Like people really are galvanized and kind of energized right now. And it might not be a million people running, okay, a thousand people running around in the street, importantly right now with signs, but don't think that energy is completely dissipated. So part of what I really think is about like finding how you can dip into it and what is resonating with people, where are they? Like honestly, sometimes people aren't ready for all the change that happened at once. It doesn't mean we're not gonna hold their feet to the fire, but we're trying to create spaces. Like just how I said, we're trying to create spaces for black folks and brown folks to be vibrant and do what they do. We're also learning day by day to create more space for people who are imperfect and people who just now woke up.  I might need to teach you how to be a better ally, but when you wake up it's time to get up, right? So for me, it really is about trying to create those spaces for people to feel okay and to learn and to... So to me, a lot of it is about awareness and then action, but again, don't talk act. It's not about a bunch of arguments. Again, this is why we made that black-owned main. If you wanna vote with your dollars, for instance, one thing you can do is put your dollars into BIPOC businesses. You can do that. You don't have to get permission. You don't have to ask anybody. Sure.  So for me, yeah, really it's about action and getting resources to where they're needed. And that's a lot of what I hear y'all talking about for sure. Appreciate that. I think Luke, I've seen a lot of people that aren't very aware of the water problem. I can remember one time the principal of my school, or maybe he was superintendent by then, wrote a letter to the editor of the paper thanking the Poll and Springs Company for donating water to our school. I was like, dude, that is a marketing ploy of theirs. How do you not see that? It's just an uphill battle, I think. But what kind of resources have you used to kind of help people understand about our water? Yeah, we've had to get creative over the years just because the amount of money Nestle's pouring into our communities and water privatizers in general because of the resources they have are pouring into our communities with marketing campaigns is overwhelming at times. At my middle school, while I was actually there and busy advocating against water privatization in Augusta and stuff like that, Poll and Spring was making significant donations to my school and to the environmental program I was participating in. And that always made me feel super uneasy. So I always took the time to bring it up in and out of class. One of our most successful methods has been simply stickers that say, Stolen Spring. I love those. I have one in my refrigerator. And those have resonated like crazy with people, just getting a very simple, concise message out that Poll and Spring isn't the local good neighbor they present themselves to be. They donate $1,000 here and $1,000 there to libraries, schools and stuff like that, but that's in reality pennies on the dollar of what they're making in profits. They're just here to make themselves look good. So almost every time I've started a conversation with someone who doesn't know about what Poll and Spring is doing, or Nestle is doing, they're like, oh, I only know them from stuff like Project Wet or Education Initiatives about hydrology and the environment, or that they donated to a local organization. But that's the intended effect. People, they want people to think of them as a good neighbor, which in reality, they're definitely not. So yeah, definitely just engaging with people in simple ways that resonate with them like stickers. It's definitely been one of them what successful is. Yeah, it used to be part of this kind of political anti-corporate art troupe that would do this Fourth of July play in West Athens, Maine every year. And it got to be bigger and bigger until it was kind of out of control. But one year when it was about to tip over the edge, there was a float and all it was was some guys on a flatbed truck and they were throwing very, very chilled little small bottles of Poll and Spring's water out into the crowd. They weren't so big that it would like hurt someone if it hit them. I was like, oh, the corporations have found West Athens Fourth of July. Here they are. It's very insidious. As a public school teacher for years, I was appalled at the extent to which corporations like Scholastic or the Gates Foundation and so forth, they just get their tentacles into these public entities that the taxpayers are supporting, don't even get me started on military recruiters. But I always was like, the local taxpayers are struggling to pay the overhead to keep this structure in place. Why are we just giving it away to these multinational wealthy corporate entities? Can I say something real quick? Yeah, please. It was interesting. So I came to the state of Maine specifically to go to Bowdoin College, right? So that was my entry and whoever was there was what I thought. And then later I got into town and was like, oh, there's like Brunswick and cool stuff. But I remember seeing Poll and Spring's almost right off. Didn't know what it was. And I remember people in Maine would say, yeah, that's Maine water. I'm like, oh sweet, okay. It's like a Maine brand. I'm sure Poll and Spring's was like some town or something I haven't been to yet. All right, cool. People are like, oh yeah, Maine's got good water. Cool. And over time as I'm drinking Poll and Spring's and hearing about it, I remember the first time someone said, well, you know, Poll and Spring's just kind of messed up. And I was like, what? You mean I thought this was the good Maine water? Like, I'm from Texas, right? I seriously have no, I'm just like, why would you say that? Everyone else says, they were like, yeah, but like, they're just like taking the good Maine water and then just like selling it to us. And I was like, that's weird. Oh, wow. But to y'all's point and I see what you're saying, that's a weird thing. They don't want people to think about that vibe.  And I mean, I guess that's what corporations do, but it's one of those things that I feel like we should be aware of for sure. Absolutely. Did they donate water? Did Poll and Spring's or Nestle donate any water when the encampment was there? No, plenty of community members did though, but no corporations, that's for sure. It's one of the things I always struggle with, like I feel bad about when there's something going on like that. It was super hot when they were camped out on City Hall. And I used to bring ice down. And I kind of felt bad about it because again, you're turning water into a commodity, but it was desperately needed. And there were all these pallets of shrink wrap, plastic bottled water, but they don't even provide porta-potties for unhoused people in the city of Portland to use. They certainly don't provide like showers or clean running water or anything. So, yeah. Yeah, I know, it was crazy too during that encampment. There were a lot of people who were finding out about, hey, there's this thing going on up at City Hall. They were living down in the park. People were getting heat stroke. It was hot out. And if we hadn't been there with those, like the medic tent and the supply tent with cold water and popsicles, how many people would have died in the summer and that, you know, now we're in the winter, it's cold, that same risk is still there. And there's just questions like, where are certain people going to go? Or how are they gonna stay warm in the daytime? Or, you know, if you're gonna use this facility now that was closed because it wasn't safe around COVID, why is it now safe for this other part of our community and not the, you know, so it's, it was just a really eye-opening experience to really see how many like deaths or harm was prevented in that encampment. And I think that was something that didn't get highlighted enough is that like, that was a protest, but it was also like a necessity for some people to get through like the heat.  You know, like I've been out to Flint two years ago where they're having a huge water crisis that's been going on year after year. You know, that's one of our main things is like when we deliver water to people, we don't wanna buy it from Nestle. So, and you can find companies that are not owned by Nestle.  And you know, I love that philosophy, whether it's like, where do you get your clothes?  And, you know, that's the way every day that you can use your vote with your dollars for your morals and your priorities.  And it's a really important mindset to like inspire in people is that like, you know, we vote every year on November 3rd, but like, what do you do in the rest of the year? Like, are you shopping at H&M where children are being abused on the other side of the world?  So it's, you know, it's really good when you collaborate because you can really like show people how many alternatives there are to these bad things that exist. Yeah, it's one of the things my campaign talked about early on, we bought some Facebook advertising. It's pretty cheap and you can target, you know. And then as we race more money and realized, okay, now we're ready to have like a real advertising campaign. So many of us were like, we don't wanna advertise on Facebook. Facebook is a bad influence in our society. And, you know, I know Adam, you use it, I use it. It's, you know, it's kind of a necessary evil in terms of communications. And, but we were like, we do not wanna be sending money to those people. Let's keep the money in Maine. And of course, when the pandemic hit, a lot of main based journalism, like they are struggling because their ad revenues fell off and a lot of layoffs and, you know, our press coordinator, Sam was saying, you know, a lot of these papers aren't even gonna be in existence a year from now. So we made a decision like, okay, let's spend all our ad dollars in Maine to support Maine media and, you know, reach the people that we need to reach. And I know what sometimes good creative is a substitute for media that you can't afford. Take Back the Tap is a slogan that I heard years ago, maybe even before I heard of you Luke, that I always thought was a pretty intelligent way to redirect people back to, you have a public water supply. And if you're not in a city like Flint, where they like took over the city government and put it into like a private receivership and then that manager, you know, made a bad decision about where they were gonna draw the water from. And it corroded their old pipes and lead got into the water. And then pediatricians started realizing these kids have lead poisoning. And, you know, it's just a, if you haven't read that book with the ice, can't see by Dr. Mona Hanna Atisha. I recommend it highly. But is Take Back the Tap still like part of what community water justice is working on? I think fundamentally like when what we're talking about in terms of like keeping water ownership in the hands of the people. Yes, in terms of like the specific phrase we haven't used that in our messaging lately, but it's definitely like, you know, I remember hearing Take Back the Tap a lot, especially when I was a much younger activist. And I think that's, you know, definitely the message still remains true in our organizing today. So yeah, for sure. When I was helping high school students learn how to write grant applications and they had identified, we want to get those kind of drinking fountains that you can fill up your water bottle at, you know, they're designed to do that. You just stick the water, and it counts, it gives you a count of how many plastic bottles you didn't use. The kids that raised the money and wrote the successful grant wanted to put, get out, Take Back the Tap on the bottles because they thought it was a cool slogan. And the principal, I think it was that same guy, was like, well, it sounds too much like beer, so we can't have that. But this whole idea that Nestle has put, you know, millions of dollars into convincing people like the water that comes out of your tap, it's not really good drinking water. And then they do scientific studies where they look at, they test the quality of water that comes out of bottles and comes out of the tap, and the water that comes out of the tap is usually better, way better. Some bottled water is just literally taken out of taps and put into, so, you know, there's reality and then there's advertising, but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't admit I used to work in advertising. I think what people perceive to be the truth is often more powerful than what is the truth. Talk to me a little bit about Black-owned Maine advertising or marketing, messaging. Do you guys help with that? Do, is there like a peer support network where businesses help each other or? Well, one thing that came to mind as I jump into that, you know, part of what you just talked about is advertising, marketing, and you see this like trickery. And I think it's important to also admit out loud that, you know, influence in this world is real, but also the reasons that you influence people, what you try to influence them to do, whether or not you have their best interest in mind as you influence them, all of that matters, right? I'm just saying, advertising isn't inherently evil, marketing isn't evil, selling things to people isn't evil. We need our economy to spin around so that we all, right, I don't know, can't get cool shoes if they don't make cool shoes, right? But is it manipulation? Are you worried about? Are you considering what this will mean and impact on the other end? So I'm just saying to me, that's just a critical thing to point out. When it comes to black-owned main, we, I mean, in one sense, at our core, we are a marketing company, right? You know, what we do is we put the word out about things and we spread awareness and we challenge things and we bring knowledge and awareness to people who maybe hadn't been paid so much attention to before. So we are, I mean, that's our world as well. You know, I can say that we've been able to achieve what we have without paying for any Facebook or Instagram marketing or anything like that. It's all been organic, which is a bit mind-blowing for me. But at the same time, I think there was a need, there was a void and we were the thing to fill it. Definitely a lot of content creation in what we do. I've now, when I meet people, so I'm a content creator. I wouldn't have said that a year ago because now I'm understanding how important it is to capture different things and to share them and then to also make it palatable or beautiful or engaging for people. And to me, again, a lot of those things point to advertising and marketing, but you know, we just, for us, it's about engaging people. It's about keeping their attention. It's about, again, sometimes challenging them. I remember around, I believe it was around Juneteenth, we had a post, I did like a little editing but really it was Rose who made the post and it got shared like over a thousand times, maybe even like 1700 times all over, not just in Maine. And it was just this infographic, a couple layers deep on a carousel, just talking about some of the race reality and again, Juneteenth is, people talk about the Fourth of July and the celebration of America and stuff and then they forget where Black people were, specifically in America, on that independence day. They weren't independent, right? And so Black people have Juneteenth, which I believe should be celebrated fervently by all Americans, but a lot of people just don't know about it or care. Or, oh, that's another time Black people try to change something and make it, blah, blah, blah. Okay, but we just gave people some straight up facts and you just find people really voraciously hungry for facts, not like spin, not per se what they always see on the news. Like somebody teach me something because they're not teaching it to you in school, unfortunately. I don't think I was ever taught about Juneteenth in school, I was definitely an adult, pretty old adult by the time I ever even heard of it, I would say. Adam, a lot of the work that you do with the community organizations that you're in is exactly the front facing, putting the message out and what are the challenges of that work? Well, you know, stigma's a big one that I find issues get stigmatized, populations get stigmatized, even solutions get stigmatized.    Well, a lot of the people there do have jobs and they live in a tent and they go to work every day. It's a miracle in my opinion that people have that kind of persistence.  You know, your building gets sold, they can kick everyone out of the building and there might not be enough apartments for you to find one next thing, you know, you're living in your car. So it's like kind of like you said, like the messaging, the optics, like people want to know facts, you know, not the spin. You know, one thing that like is really important to me too is like to not be divisive when presenting the facts, you know, we're, we see so much division and people at each other over the deferring beliefs or opinions on things. And, you know, the common thread is that, you know, the elected officials that we're hiring to fix problems in our society aren't fixing them.  So, you know, when you present things with the facts and the no spin, it becomes a lot easier to bring people together around a common goal like ending homelessness or, you know, ending a war on drugs. That's really just a war on American people that has disproportionately affected, you know, like the BIPOC communities or the unhoused communities. And we have to be working together as the people to solve these things. And like when we can like look to ourselves as the solution, like that's the, that's when things will really change for everyone. It always seems weird to me that we stigmatize poverty yet hoarding wealth is admirable in late stage capitalism. Like that's just hoarding, you know? And if you, you know, if you would provide a guaranteed basic income to people, they would spend that money in the community. They would pay their rent. They would buy groceries and clothes and so forth. You give more money to Jeff Bezos at Amazon and he just hoards it. And it doesn't go back into the economy. So it's a weird, you know, we've been sold a very strange outlook on life, I think to kind of keep these systems in place. And it's pretty clear that our corporate overlords would rather see a civil war than a revolution because they're afraid the people are gonna become, so austerity is just gonna become so extreme that the people are gonna say, what else do we have to lose and rise up? So I think that a lot of mass media, corporate media is purposely pitting groups against each other and making us think that, you know, all of us have far more in common with each other than we do with, you know, trillionaire over there, but we're sold all kinds of crazy ideas. And I always like to say they're manufactured problems and issues, you know, homelessness at least. There's something like five or 10 empty houses in America right now per person that doesn't have a home. Like homelessness shouldn't exist. There's a, so you really look at these problems like these issues are being created then these people are profiting off of the solution to these issues. So there's no incentive to solve the problems. And the media has just become the tool to make sure we're distracted enough that we don't get it and, you know, divide and conquer it's historically the most effective way to prevent change. And I wish more people would just look up how that is done to populations and communities so you can understand when it's happening and defy those tactics. Cause it happens to everyone in places like this. You're reminding me that we did a webinar back when everybody really was staying home all the time on homelessness. And we had Sherry Honkalo was one of the presenters and she's been working in Philadelphia for years with, she was a single mom that became homeless and she ended up breaking into a vacant house and just living in it saying, I got kids here I gotta take care of them. So now she's part of a community group that actually supports people and enables people and powers people to do that. And they send emissaries out. If you invite them to Portland, they will come and work with your community to learn how to, you know, kind of take over housing that's not being used because people are hoarding it and other, you know, people are sleeping outside in the cold. So crazy problems sometimes require solutions that might seem a little crazy cause they're out of the box. But then when you think them through they seem fairly reasonable. So we are nearing the end of our time. This has been a great conversation. I wonder if you would think about folks that are listening at home or that will listen to this recorded. If you could do one ask of them to help make the world a better place. You don't even have to stick to your issue or your organizations if you don't want to but one ask that you would make of your fellow humans right now. What would that be? You wanna go first, Luke? Sure, yeah. I would recommend paying attention to local politics.  You're one of the few figures who's giving me hope right now in terms of the national political scene. And I think local politics are aware a lot of immediate and sustainable changes can be made. Having friendly water district members or school board members or city council members can make a tremendous difference in a number of local campaigns whether you're paying attention to racial justice organizing that's going on right here in Portland or water justice organizing that was happening in my hometown of Freiburg a few years ago and other communities across Maine that are resisting water privatizers. So I would ask that you reach out to local organizations, just ask what you can do to help. We really have to think globally and act locally. And yeah, and just support local campaigns and organizations mutual aid is really important. Yeah.  No, I'm actually working. You think you will? I don't know yet. I'm actually right now I'm working on a city, Portland school board campaign for Nylat Billy for school board at large. But yeah, I don't know for myself. I definitely like the grassroots organizing element, but yeah. Oh yeah, well yeah, thank you, that's it. Sure. Adam, what would be your ask of our listeners at home? I would challenge viewers today to do just one good deed every day for somebody in need, whether it's small or big. There's a saying that's kind of circulated on the internet and meme format, small acts of kindness when multiplied by millions of people could change the world. So while we're fighting all these causes which are clearly long processes and take time, we can all reduce harm for each other and alleviate suffering by just being the best neighbors and community members we can be. And the nicer and more loving we are and give back to each other, the more tolerable it's going to be waiting and fighting for these changes. So I think that's a really important one. Great, thank you. Wow. Jerry? Those are good, okay. High standard here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all right. What I'm thinking, an analogy that I use often to help people to better understand systemic issues, systemic change. I had a good friend down from Texas who one day we were going back and forth and he was like, man, people always say systemic. Like just what does that really mean? Wow, honest question, honest question.  How old were you when you knew what all those words meant? Right? How many times did you say them before that? Anyway, so I'm not even gonna jump into that but the point I'm making is that people need to think more systemically. You have to understand these issues, everything you've been talking about, not just your last argument on Facebook or the people that you saw protesting or just the last meme you saw. Those are all the ends of the tendrils hanging but in reality there's this whole thing that's creating all of that, right? Going to a protest and screaming at someone's face is important but there's a whole system that created whatever it is. So my advice is to start to pay attention to systems, not just your favorite politicians, not just your favorite news source. I often look at opposing news sources and then meditate on the fact that the truth is somewhere in the middle. None of them are gonna tell me the truth. Some of them don't even know the truth. Think systemically. Don't just jump into arguments, don't just try to change people's minds, understand systems and then work like the people on this stage seriously to effect systemic change. Analogy wise I try to tell people if you go to the doctor and you have a little rash right here, they're gonna be like, hey, here's some ointment to go right here because there's a localized issue. A week later the rash is gone. What if someone unfortunately is diagnosed with leukemia and throughout their bloodstream there are different cancerous agents? No salve on a spot is gonna fix that or counteract that. They have to take chemicals into their body, that radiation, right? Because to attack something systemically your approach has to be systemic, right? So I just wanna say that out loud, learn to think more systemically, stop just arguing with individuals, study systems. I love that, that's exactly the way I think and I think some people are big picture thinkers and some people are more, and I respect both ways of thinking and some of us get a lot done doing one and some of us get a lot done doing the other but my ask is gonna be something incredibly tiny of people listening, so small. I've been organizing around climate and militarism around the military budget about pushing back on recruitment in high schools and retiring native mascots that were demeaning stereotypes and all sorts of issues and I've been usually a communications person in those movements as those are kind of my strengths but I've marched, I've met with my elected officials, I've protested, I've gotten arrested, I've done petitions, I've written letters, I've called people and started groups and so forth. I've done a lot of things to try to change and sometimes it works and sometimes you have a little success and sometimes you're up against something much bigger than yourself but when people kinda came to me a year ago, summer and said, would you consider running for the US Senate against Susan Collins as a green under rank choice it's rank choice voting, it's a game changer, that it's not the false dichotomy first past the post, you wouldn't be a spoiler, in fact you'd be bringing more progressive voice into the race and giving people something to get more excited about and stuff. So I had not, I mean I'd been an elected union official before like union negotiator but I had never run for elected office and it's been quite an experience, a big learning experience certainly but that leads me to my ask and my ask is this, the tiniest thing I did this year, the tiniest political act was the other day I voted in my pajamas, I had to move from my home in Solon because there isn't enough broadband internet to Zoom where I live up in the second district in the like foothills of the Western mountains and so I've been staying with friends in Bath, my husband came down for the weekend, he had brought me my absentee ballot and I marked it and I handed it back to him and he took it, he hand carried it back to the town clerk because I can support the post office other ways this year, I'm a little leery of mailing my ballot in but that's like the smallest political act I'll do this year, it's tiny, it's not gonna change much of anything for me to mark that one, rank myself first, whatever but it's so crucial because if I don't do it and you don't do it and they don't do it then we end up with people will blame a spoiler candidate but really it's all the people that didn't vote Maine has high voter turnout and we maybe get like 60% it's looking like this year might be record turnout in part because it's easier to vote this year because of the pandemic and absentee voting so I'm gonna urge everybody to make a plan to vote if you haven't done it already, make a plan. Do you guys have a plan to vote? I've already voted. You already voted? I'm actually literally someone just messes me because we're figuring out a plan tonight. Cool. Yes.  Nope, I'm still a senior in high school, not yet, just a few months off. All right. Well, you're doing an awful lot as a senior in high school and I appreciate all of you being here with me. This has been a great conversation. It's so nice to meet you, Jerry, and thanks for coming all this way to be with us, Luke and Adam, always a pleasure. I think this is three nights in a row. We've been in action together when we were the other so thanks everybody for listening in and please share this and we hope to see you soon. Take care. Thanks guys. Good job.


From Phoenix, Arizona, theCUBE at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We are on the ground in Phoenix, Arizona at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. About 400 people, fourth year of the conference are going to be back in the Bay Area next year. Really a lot of good things going on around the women in tech theme that we cover on theCUBE. So we wanted to come down, check it out our first time here. I'm sure we'll be back again. And we're excited by our next guest, Hilary Weber, the founder and CEO of Oper2. Welcome. Thank you. So what is Oper2? Oper2 is an unusual company. It is a coaching and consulting company that focuses on innovation. So I have two main audiences that I work with. So startups are one because startups are innovation in essence, but 95% of them fail. So we're trying to make sure that less of them fail. And we're focusing on sort of innovating their innovation by a culture focus. So is it kind of process of innovation, culture of innovation? It's both, but it's mainly, it's all around people. It's all around people. Yeah, and so not just startups struggle with innovation though, bigger companies struggle with it too. So what we're trying to do is kind of help startups act a little bit like bigger companies because that's what they're aspiring to be, but really preserving that wonderful culture that they usually have. And if they don't have a wonderful culture making sure we work on that right away. And then the bigger companies, as companies get bigger and bigger and bigger, they tend to lose their innovation edge. And it typically is rooted in culture as well. So we have some interesting tools that we work with. I've been partnering with UC Berkeley on some really cutting edge innovation tools, being able to actually measure a company's propensity for innovation, their capability to innovate. So it's brand new, right? So that's very exciting. So that's what we do. That's great. One of my all time favorite interviews was with the San Francisco Giants and we interviewed them specifically around the kale garden, which I don't know how much kale you eat, but they put the kale garden behind the center field wall where you can now go get a salad and they'll pick it off these hydroponic things growing all the lettuce. And it has nothing to do with baseball, but to me, it was a fascinating story on a culture of innovation. The Giants are really innovative. Bill Schlau over there, the CIO.  So what are some of the secrets of having a culture of innovation as opposed to just innovation in terms of making interesting things? Because it's really about the culture. Well, it is. And you mentioned the confidence word. Confidence is a big focus. A lot of people think that hiring millennials is going to solve their innovation problem. Maybe yes, maybe no. It's really the mix. It's how are these people collaborating? How free is that newest newbie to share an idea if you get in there and you realize this company operates by having ideas come from the top down.  And especially for women. And especially for women, since we're here at Girls in Tech, where they're by far the minority around the table. So the risk of them speaking up is higher for them. They feel more of an outsider. So figuring out ways to honor the diversity rather than make it be a problem and creating a team that just fires on all cylinders. And so ideas just come. So if I'm running a company and I know I've got a disproportionate bunch of male engineers of the tech company, what are some of the things that I can do to help encourage that young woman with this great idea to get it out of her to make it comfortable for her to share? What are some of the things that I can do from this side of the table to really enable that? I think part of it is really raising the awareness of what it's like for others. I mean, there are multiple tools out there that you can use, but sometimes working with someone from the outside that can help them see things differently. The function of a coach is often holding up a mirror, right? And when you're inside of something, it is really hard to see what's really going on. Sometimes I'll describe to the startups that we work with, I'll say if you're on the inside of an apple, it looks all white with these big black seeds. From out here, it looks shiny and red. It's still an apple, right? But it looks very different from the inside to the outside. So having a different perspective, the other thing is that kind of vibe starts with the leader, right? They have to model the behavior. They have to look at their own behavior and see what am I doing or not doing that is encouraging that and enabling that and maybe hire some more women. Have women on your board, it's proven. You have a woman on your board, you get 20% more revenue and productivity. There's statistics all around that. So do you find the value in what you do? A large part of it is simply putting the mirror on. I mean, there's techniques and stuff, take a minute, take a breath, look at what's happening here from the outside and you'll see and it'll be more obvious. If people just get kind of wrapped up in the way they've already always done things, they're busy, they don't really have time to lift their head up and take a breath, what do you find in your clients? Awareness is the first step, certainly. They wouldn't bring you in, right? If they didn't want to make improvements. Precisely, precisely. If there's a lack of awareness, then a lot of times it's really hard. Yeah, exactly, but a lot of times there'll be sort of a moment that will happen. Unfortunately, sometimes where somebody's super unhappy or there's a lawsuit or something like that, that's an extreme case, but... Sometimes it takes a catalyst like that, unfortunately, right? Sometimes, but hopefully you've got one or two people who are, you know, we're at a certain stage where I think we need to really up our leadership game, up our professional development, look at things differently. We're losing too many people, right? Those kind of things. Right, and then what tips for the woman on the other side of the table? You're by yourself, you're outnumbered, maybe you're not as loud, maybe you're not 100% sure that this is the answer that you want to give or the suggestion you want to make, but you think it's got legs. What are some of the tips and tricks that you give them to get your voice out? Get, you know, how do you kind of counsel ways that they can get that out? Well, confidence comes in all forms. Women tend to have been successful in their lives, there's statistics on this too, where we tend to be rule followers when we're younger, right? We get all A's, we get the praise of the teacher, and we finally get to the workplace and kind of following all the rules really doesn't work. So they haven't had a lot of chances to fail, basically. So I kind of give them failure lessons, you know? Learn how to fail at something small. One of my clients went out and did trivia night with her friends and she knew she was going to not do well in some categories, even though she's super smart. Practice doing that.  The other thing I would really say is, take a look at your own values. I have a values assessment that I put on my website so anybody can do it. I think it's really underutilized for individuals and for companies to do a values assessment. What do I really care about? What are the battles that I am going to, you know, go to the ends of the earth to get to? Right, right. What are the things I really wanna promote and why? Like if you know that inside of yourself, that can really fuel your confidence when you're sitting in a meeting where it's a little bit scary. Right, but that almost, again, sounds kind of like the mirror thing that you talked about before. It's, you know, reconnecting with those values in the context of the moment as opposed to, you know, we all just get so busy, you know, you're just wrapped up with getting stuff done and trying to get through whatever you're trying to get through. Exactly, and I think a lot of people either go through their day kind of just trying to get through the day, right?  And that doesn't really work.  How can we be more than the sum of our parts? Right, right. Important stuff you're working on there, Hilary. So how can people learn more? How can they reach out and connect with you? They can go to oper2.com, O-P-P-O-R-T-U.com. They can email me, hweber, with 1B, H-W-E-B-R, at oper2.com or, you know, find me on Twitter or Facebook. Excellent. Well, thank you for taking a few minutes. Really important stuff you're working on. Thank you very much. All right, Hilary Weber, I'm Jeff Frick. We are at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. You're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching.


marker. Hey y'all welcome back to my channel it's your girl Cara for today's video I'm gonna be doing a highly highly highly requested video of what's in my bag y'all wanted it so I'm delivering like always and don't forget to like comment subscribe if you're new my name's Cara it's nice to meet you it's nice that you support me so yeah let's just get into the video. Okay so the bag I'm carrying right now is a lot of time never before y'all I wasn't even a fan of this bag at first because a lot of people will have this one this is really like the Louis Vuitton started kit bag honestly so I'm like I don't want that bag whatever but then they just came out with the patches one and I just love this like it's so cute and it's so different nobody has this like really so this just came out this year so I'm like I gotta have it like I wanted a big bag anyways because I like big bags like during the week because and on a week I'll carry it on the weekends if I'm not going anywhere but I like to switch out my bags like during the weekend but during the week I like to carry like a lot of things I like to be able to throw things in my bag and be able to carry anything I do carry my laptop because I am in I do do you too obviously so I like to stop at the cafe and like work on some stuff like on my way home from work or like I just like to carry it with me like I'll edit a video on my lunch break or something like that or upload something and yeah that's how dedicated I am and yeah and I carry my a lot of stuff in here so I just like to carry it and like to throw things in here so yeah I'm in love with this bag it's super cute so first I'm gonna show y'all the little pouch that comes with it it's attached to the bag like this it's just attached to it so yeah so this is just like a pouch I like to keep all my like cosmetics in here and like hand sanitizer and like my lip gloss lip chat all that stuff lotion perfume hand sanitizer well I'm gonna go through it obviously but okay so this is the pouch that comes with it so I carry hand sanitizer this is the bath and body works cucumber melon this one smells so good and fresh then I have my favorite lip combo gotta have it with me always this is boy bait and Matt's Max gloss and court in the Mac lip liner so I got concealer in here but I do this is the biscuit one this is just for probably one like if like my bags are showing or something like that and I like to look kind of cute if I'm finesse somebody I don't fucking know and I have lotion I have hemp's Himalayan salt lotion I have to keep lotion on me I work at the hospital and I'm conscious well it's a clinic but I am consistently I'm always washing my hands my hands gonna dry and I do have eggs month so I like to keep my skin as much right as possible y'all not if y'all have not tried hint yet y'all these trade him since the bomb they sell it at all to like get you the moisture this one smells so good like y'all get this one this one was the last one too but I got your manna be able to see it but it's the pink whole Melio Himalayan seesaw one it's cute it's in a white battle oh my god this smells so good I gotta get the big version oh my god oh my god this smells so good like like a cute bridge bridge or something okay next y'all know I'm obsessed with perfume of course I carry perfume I have a few just in case somebody's trying to pull up on me I'm just like roller wheel creek roll roll roll you're not about to catch me stinking cuz I like when like you know how like when you pull up on somebody and be like and you first get in the car like or they'll first get in your car and you just melt in there but you play yeah they smoke it as fuck that's all that's how I like to be like to people like before I go see somebody or something I just try and hurry up and like if I'm not at home I just like to hurry up and put a smelt good on me and so they can be like damn good why someone by far bomb these two and then see this one's about to be done but I love this so good and I just like pour it and then I just have a chapstick in here this was like an altar sample like of the sugar advanced therapy by fresh and then I have some eye drops because my eyes do get dry so yeah I keep this with me like that and then I just have my eyelash curler because I curl my eyelashes okay why brush them not curl them because you never know where you're gonna need a brush and then if I didn't want to carry my bag or something like that if I wanted to wear it as a wristlet I could but I'm pretty sure y'all know that then the next thing that I carry is my planner oh my friend made this y'all it's so cute but I carry this all the time and I got this pen from I wanted a cute pen to go with this but I got this pen from Marshall's maybe having some pretty cute stuff there at Marshall's like both of Marshall's are home goods no it's home goods yeah home goods be having some cute stuff and they have like a whole like little office section so I wanted to go see if they had a pen and they did this one says nailed it kill so then this is my planner I love having a planner on me because I can just jot stuff down and I like to jot down like y'all know I'm all into manifesting and my plan is actually kind of private honestly it's like a little journal or something but um like I'll jot down stuff for a class and stuff like that I fill it out weekly I'm gonna show y'all like in the notes section I like to write down like my goals and what I'm manifesting and stuff like that for like the month this is in September I just wrote the same thing for October though but yeah I encourage everybody to get a planner like carry a planner are you carry something where you can just jot down notes and just got jot down things like if something comes to mind just jot down like if you're pursuing something just hurry up and write it down because you will forget well some some people won't but I tend to forget some shade and and even it doesn't even have to be this one but I love this one but I'm just saying that everybody should have a planner like get one keep your life organized and plan out your week it's pretty pretty healthy to do that pretty healthy lifestyle tip so the next I have I just got these honestly I got my hair blockers because bitches be coming for me and I'm just like bye what what do you want what I'm not sleeping with your nigga like what I don't want your nigga don't nobody want him but you but yeah I just got these I want to carry these with me always these are only $16 just in case I'm having like a day how to be like don't fucking talk to me please thank you what did I just say talk to me don't talk to me like what yeah so the next I just carry my wallet with me this is just a cute little classy wallet I got it's cute but it's just plain wallet I just carry my credit cards money if you want to cash at me you know it's cute I feel like everybody should have like a cute classy wallet just in case you don't want to carry a purse you just carry your wallet and just be like like that or something like my cute like that oh you guys know what these are for for sure you know what this is for what did you say just in case a bum trying to touch me ill bitch now these are all just wet ones I keep wet ones on me because I'm not trying to get sick I got stuff to do okay like yes I suggest everybody carry hand sanitizer with them or some kind of sanitary wipes cuz you never fucking out he's like he's like like no so yeah so then next I have my headphones I'm always I need to get some earpods though like I really do like I really need to invest in that and then this is a no addition to my bag cuz I just got this the other day this is a lineage lip sleeping mask this is bomb like go get it my girl Susie put me on this it's so bomb like oh my god like cool to know cuz like my chet lips get so dry like they get so dry in the winter like when my lips are just so big so I'm just like oh my god like car makes doesn't work for me I don't like it Vaseline no so I really been trying this out and it's a really good like I like it it leaves my lips like super moisturized and it's just like pink like that and then you don't even have to dip your finger in it all the way just place it lightly on the top and just go like that oh my god y'all go get that lotion but yeah I carry this lastly my food I carry in my bag I love little snacks like this you're able to throw in your bag like just like that cute y'all know it's Halloween season so they got the little snack sizes but gummy bears are my favorite candy like a plum fact gummy bears are yeah I'm trying to I've tried to watch my portion size too so like little stuff like this are like bomb like you can just throw it in your bag like it's convenient so I just have orchard valley almonds which go with these these are bomb they sell them at Walmart and I think they sell them out like Marshall's and stuff too I don't know but their bombs and I get the nuts and then I have this simply balanced fruit bar because these are bomb it looks like a piece of leather and then kind bars just on my bag I do keep a box of like granola bars in my and my car like in the glove department and I just fell in my bag before I get out and go to work of course I have a gum I totally have fucking gum like if you don't carry gum like what is your life we can't have stank breath okay but I should carry gum because you never know you never know you can get some onions you never know when you can eat some funny you never know when your breath is gonna stank and you don't want to be that girl that everybody thinks has helatosis now do you know I say helatosis I can't take myself serious y'all it's late I'm kind of hungry but yeah that's pretty much all I carry and I when I do carry my laptop it's just like in the middle and it's it's enough room in here and it's a 15 inch just if anybody was curious if it fit in there but yeah that's pretty much it's so beautiful right it's a cute bag and I love it so much I do recommend this bag if you're like in school or like just a business woman on a go or something like that I really highly recommend this okay I hope this gave you some little bit of ideas of what y'all should carry in y'all bags or something like that so yeah that pretty much wraps up this video don't forget to like comment subscribe I love y'all so much bye


What are the three most important steps to take to prepare for a recession? 1. Create an emergency fund by setting aside money to cover three to six months' worth of expenses in the event of an unforeseen expense or job loss. 2. Reduce debt to relieve financial burden during a recession, pay off high interest debt, restrict new borrowers. 3. In order to withstand market volatility and guard against losses, diversify your investments by considering a combination of stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. Have fun preparing.