Left Face
Join Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson while they talk politics and community engagement in Pikes Peak region.
Left Face
A Military Spouse's Perspective on Arming Teachers
The safety of our kids in school is a topic that hits close to home for all of us, and Megan's activism in the school community as we grapple with the idea of concealed carry for teachers highlights the broader conversation on how we can best protect our children. We reflect on the FASTER program's initiatives, the potential impact on teachers' psychological wellbeing, and the use of School Resource Officers as an alternative. The heartrending reality of active shooter drills and their impact on our youngest ones is a stirring call to action for every listener concerned with the future of school safety.
But our journey doesn't stop at the school gates; it takes us around the globe as Megan and I explore how different cultures can reshape our political ideologies and the trust we place in our government. From the social safety nets in Germany to the challenges faced by American middle-class families and educators, we tackle the intricacies of economic pressures and the responsibilities we carry in framing a truthful narrative of American history for our children. Join us as we navigate these waters, confronting the critical issues that shape our lives and the world our children will inherit.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the All Things Military and Veteran Podcast. I'm your host, adam Gillard. You know it's been a little bit since I've done a podcast here, so forgive the roughness of it all, but I have been pretty busy doing some things, trying to stay involved in the community, and we'll catch up on a lot of that stuff at another time. Today we're going to talk about some of the stuff that's going on in D20 here in Colorado Springs. I went to a school board meeting a couple of months ago now where they were trying to get some training for teachers and staff members to be able to carry concealed firearms in classrooms. And you know, as a military member, somebody who's, you know, had to arm up and things like that not every day, but you know I've been trained to uh, that that's a responsibility we should not be putting on teachers who are there to teach our kids, um. So you know I've been attending some of the school board meetings for those things and trying to, you know, to have our presence there.
Speaker 1:I was able to meet some good folks and one of them, megan that's who today's podcast is going to be with today, got to talk with her and really kind of express her concerns about where D20 is going. So here's my conversation with Megan. Thanks again for tuning in. If you guys are interested in being a part of this podcast, please reach out info at epccpvorg. We're here to talk and get the community's voice out there, so please reach out. But again, here's my conversation with Megan. Well, thanks for joining me today. You know we're doing the all things military and veteran podcast here. Yeah, you know, tell me a little bit about yourself where you guys you know come from. Just kind of your experience with you know in the military right now right now.
Speaker 2:Oh um well, I grew up in Colorado uh, warren and Ray's Colorado and um I went to college in West Virginia at. Marshall university and my best friend from college was friends with my husband. He did ROTC at Virginia tech. Okay, and he went into the Navy. He did submarines when we were first together.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a lot of time apart there though. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:He actually, so we were pretty much just pen pals, and then when we saw each other again, we got married, so we didn't really date.
Speaker 1:He must be a good writer, yeah.
Speaker 2:We printed out all our emails. It was a book of emails.
Speaker 1:That's funny, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then on the submarine they have to number them because you might not get your emails in order and they also have people who read your emails Like it flags your emails.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I purposely like stick stuff in the email to write stuff to the guy who I knew was reading our emails.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're people too. They need to have something yeah, I was like doing did you ever get a response from him?
Speaker 2:yeah, and then I met him in real life after. But kind of funny, just call him creeper yeah and and then he volunteered to do GSA in Afghanistan. So we didn't know we were going to get married or anything, but we got married and then he did Army training and then he went to Afghanistan. So the first 15 months of our marriage he was gone.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is GSAsa? What does that mean? I think it like the army needed officers, so he volunteered to go and fulfill an officer role okay he did casualty reporting okay, and that was right at the beginning.
Speaker 1:You know of your marriage. Did you have your kids already?
Speaker 2:No, no kids.
Speaker 1:How many? Kids do you have now.
Speaker 2:I have three kids.
Speaker 1:What's their ages?
Speaker 2:Ten, eight and four.
Speaker 1:Ten, eight and four. Okay, I think my youngest right now is nine. It's nice when they get to that age where they can be a little more independent At four. That's still a lot of your attention goes there to those. You know, preschooler and kindergartners. Um yeah, and they all go to school up in the uh, the d20 district here in Colorado Springs yep, yep that's cool.
Speaker 1:Uh, I always hear, oh one of my, my kids went to Rampart up there in D20, just because that district has always been historically kind of known as like a good school district here. So with our choose where you get to go and voucher systems, things like that, it's nice to have that capability to go other districts, and so District 20 has always been kind of like one of those gold standards. You know, at least when we first moved up here on, like you know, for good schools. Yeah, you know, last year we saw some changes coming along with the election of their new school board. How much were you tracking that? You know, last year with the school board elections and things like that, um, were you a part of that at all?
Speaker 2:We. So we moved from Okinawa back to Colorado and we got we moved into our house in August. So we haven't even been in our house for a whole year, but we came back and I was trying to. I watched some board meetings online and tried to see what was going on, to pick where we were going to live. And I picked D20 because the yeah, like they're known for being excellent. They've won lots of awards for being a great school district. But I started learning about Derekrick wilburn and amy shandy and I was like, oh, so I reached out to people I knew are working on the other campaigns and I, as soon as I moved in, I walked over and started dropping lit for them so that's cool that you don't trade in like that.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, I've done a little bit more in politics in the last year or so and I've definitely learned that like volunteers is kind of what makes this whole thing go around. And, you know, having people like jump in and get involved, especially at the, the, the local level, that's where you can make your biggest impact. Um, you know, with those elections last year, though, it obviously didn't go, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, with those elections last year though it obviously didn't go, you know the way that we wanted. What's been? Some of the people who are supporting their campaign want to ban books and they have like at the board meetings. I've seen Moms for Liberty there and Derek actually started this group called like D20 Advocates for Kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've heard about them yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it started at his church, I think is where he got a lot of his base support. He goes to Church for All Nations and they actually do a lot of panels that they post online, so I was able to watch those and see their opinions on things. But yeah, I'm really against banning books and I really strongly believe in free speech and being able to protest and so when they took over, you know they started pushing for that book ban pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:Um, how many books actually got banned last year? What do you? Do you know if there was a number?
Speaker 2:so when they first, I don't know how many they've actually, what they've done this year and I'm not exactly sure what happened last year, Since we've been overseas. I was actually voting in Douglas County.
Speaker 2:So I watched all that stuff on phone wanted to try a new book review process and her whole idea didn't make any sense at all. She wanted people to rate how much they wanted to ban books, like on a scale of one to five, and she was going to evenly distribute the parent groups with book banners and people against book, like book banning, to review books together.
Speaker 1:But everybody got really upset about that and they did have some legislation going through, like break yourself, like you know, from free speech to Nazi, like where?
Speaker 2:are you on that spectrum? Yeah, they have a few really passionate people that are super anti-LGBTQIA and they're always angry about trans issues and I feel like they really have the ear of the board members and the superintendent and maybe they were pushing some of that idea to her Right and maybe they were pushing some of that idea to her, but she ended up backing off of that because they had that book materials legislation going through and they didn't want to start that whole process if it wasn't even going to be allowed anyway.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, yeah, it's pretty wild to me how they're just picking and choosing their little culture wars. You know, like you said, that right now they're going heavy against the uh, the LGBTQ community and things like that. Um, you know, they they really kind of just pick the most decisive thing and focus on that. Um, I did a little bit of high school teaching last year, um, and the high school kids that I dealt with they are way more receptive to you, receptive to other people and welcoming of other people than the adults ever are. So I think a lot of it's a generated issue for people to focus on. So what are some of the things?
Speaker 2:that you know we should be trying to do to. You know, get the word out there. You know about these elections and trying to strengthen our communities with grassroots folks versus, you know, the paid politicians like those guys. Yeah, I think the teachers in D20 need a lot of support and even just volunteering in your school building and showing up is a huge deal. You, you like you meet people, you build community. That way a lot of people don't show up to volunteer, and I think volunteering is the heart of everything. So yeah, that's present.
Speaker 1:That's a great point, you know, and as soon as you said that, I didn't really think of it. But if you're not volunteering, those teachers are picking up that slack, like the job that you volunteer for need to get done one way or the other. And if you don't show up, if we're not volunteering with them, it's the teachers that do that for us. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I joined PTA and I've been doing that this year and I'm going to be the treasurer at our school next year. But I think it's just really important to be there and to meet people. A lot of people are lonely and they want friendships and they want to be involved and they want that sense of community. So I think that's the whole start of it. Our school we haven't had as many volunteers as I think we need, and maybe people are just so busy working and trying to keep up, you know make sure they can pay their bills and everything.
Speaker 2:It's hard to keep track of other things that are going on, but you know we can all help each other. If we know somebody has a problem, we can work together to bring it to the board's attention or to talk to people that we know to try to help solve something. To try to help solve something Right.
Speaker 1:Another issue that this board has kind of brought upon us is the arming teachers movement that they're trying to, you know, push on folks. So you're familiar with the FASTER program.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They train stuff like that. Can you give me a little explanation on that uh program, the faster program, and what they're trying to do with us here?
Speaker 2:well they so they're people okay. So there's like a private organization that the faster program and they offer training staff it could be any staff, not just teachers how to deep conceal carry a weapon, and then we're not really sure how elaborate the rest of the training is, but I think it's only a couple days of training that was going to be some of my questions too, because I heard one of the ladies speak at one of the uh the the meetings where she said she had to get 10 out of 10 shots or something like that.
Speaker 1:you know in her training, um, but like, well, what's the reoccurring training? Also, you know if you, if you're in a classroom all week, you know you can hit a sign 10 feet away.
Speaker 2:Cool, but what? What's the reoccurring training, to make sure?
Speaker 1:that you stay proficient at that.
Speaker 2:I've never heard anything on that. Yeah, we were concerned about psychological evaluations and a lot of the people that spoke in favor of faster they did a lot deeper training than what would have actually been offered to the staff, so maybe their experience was like better air quotes on that.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, more focused. Yeah, yeah, that one person said they had one-on-one training for like seven months before they tested and it's like you, a teacher cannot do that.
Speaker 2:No no, I just I can't even imagine if there was a school shooting and you're that teacher that is carrying a gun and you have your class of kids. Are you just going to leave your kids and go out there?
Speaker 1:Like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't see it realistically how it would be like helping the big picture very much, even if I felt like they could even handle that kind of pressure right, um, yeah, that's one thing that I always talk about is like that pressure is.
Speaker 1:You know you have to flip a switch when you're carrying the sidearm, and that's got to be your top priority right at all times.
Speaker 1:Um yeah and you start to see the world a little more jaded and a little more cautious and like these are people that are supposed to be. You know teaching your children and be vulnerable to them, and like you know showing them how to be people too. And now you got them just as a amp, like because you have to be able to flip that switch immediately. You know so that that weighs on you psychologically. So even if you do you feel good today, you know pass, so that weighs on you psychologically. So even if you do, you feel good today, you know pass your psychology test today here, after doing that for a year or two, like that's going to weigh a lot on you.
Speaker 1:And we need to make sure that we're. You know there's some back end support there. I think it'd be a tragedy if anything like this happens. But really, what other solutions are there for folks? I, I, you know, because right now they're talking. You know, arming teachers? Uh, one of the alternatives would be getting sros in there or like private security they ended up finding the money to bring in more sros yeah, okay um, I mean, a lot of people don't feel good about sros either, so I know you're just throwing more guns on the problem.
Speaker 1:You know you don't put out a fire by pouring more fire on it, um, but I think that's something that I can at least sign off on, because there's there's a legitimate need and concern there also. You know, um, yeah, have your kids come home from school yet after like an active shooter drill? Yeah, and like, have you talked to them about it? And like, what, what's their reaction when they receive these active shooter drills?
Speaker 2:I think the school is a little more vague about like if it's an actual shooter. I forget what language they use, but I when Columbine happened, but I when Columbine happened, my middle school was locked down and, like people in my community were close with people who were killed in Columbine and everything's just escalated from that point on oh yeah, like I drive around Douglas County.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, STEM school shooting like shooting here, it's just it's to me. After living in other countries I've lived in Italy and Bahrain and Japan I feel like America has such a gun culture and it's like you feel like you need a gun because everybody else has a gun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and it's it's really hard. I don't know what to do to solve the problem, but I don't want my kids to go to school in some base. Basically.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:To be able to go to school. I do feel like our schools are safe how they are, like the way they do the doors at the front desk.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I can't get to any school around here without putting up an id and things like that yeah, and they have the cards to open the doors. Like I don't feel like my kids are unsafe, but so has there been any kind of like official risk assessment or anything like that, like you know?
Speaker 2:our security. The head of our security actually won an award for doing such a great job oh really. And then they still hired all these extra sros. Um, I feel you know we're not. Our schools are here and we also have city police and other police presence too. So I don't know how much the extra SROs are needed, but I think a lot of parents just have so much fear from, I mean, and who can blame them?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I know whenever my kids come home after like an active shooter drill or something, you know they'll kind of be laughing and joking about somebody not being quiet, or you know it's such a norm for them. They don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think they understand the gravity of it, but like yeah yeah, I'll be like tearing up, like, oh my god, you guys have to, you guys think this is normal, this is cool, like to, you know, have these drills. You know it's, it's ridiculous kind of what we, uh, what we've turned into just because of this gun culture, um, but I don't think they're going away either, like I don't, like I don't know how to you know, we've had thousands of reasons and examples to get rid of guns or like assault weapons and you know, kind of control it, um, but we don't. And it just blows my mind like how we can't get past this.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, like right now the best solution is to have more armed people inside the schools, like the sros and things like that. Um, you know, I think if we could get more guidance counselors and folks like that that could actually talk to some of these kids and like actually be focused on reaching out, you know, but yeah you know I always talk about mental health like Republicans.
Speaker 2:They're like oh, mental health, blah. That's why this happens. But as soon as bills come up to support more mental health, they turn them down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they don't want to help that either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just absolutely blows my mind. There's a lot of cool organizations out there that are like, uh, like liberal organizations. Uh, gabby giffords has one. Um, that's about, you know, responsible gun ownership. Um, you know, gabby giffords was the congresswoman that got shot in like 2010 2011 time frame, um, but she's still an advocate for responsible gun ownership her and her, her husband there, um, so there's organizations out there that are trying to bridge that gap. But, you know, as soon as you know you start talking to folks and you identify as a Democrat or as more liberal, progressive mind, people will shut down immediately and then they'll kind of like, cast you into certain lights. Um, when it comes to like gun ownership and things, uh, have you, you know, in your family, do you guys own guns? Do you guys, like, support gun ownership? So you guys, you know, understand the need or the want for guns.
Speaker 2:I guess yeah, like I grew up with guns and I know how to shoot, we're talking about taking our son to start learning how to shoot also. I mean, I enjoy shooting, that's what it is for you.
Speaker 1:I haven't been able to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't Like. Even having a gun in the house makes me a little concerned.
Speaker 1:even though keeping these in separate places and keeping them locked down I it's can, it can still be concerning, because you always hear about kids getting yeah, and I remember me as a kid like I would get into anything like I could like if, if there was a safe or a lock on something, like I would find that key. You know, like there's only so many places it can be in the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So any kind of you know mischievous kid out there and there's a lot of us out there, you know they didn't get into things pretty easily.
Speaker 1:But you're absolutely right too.
Speaker 2:We need to teach them at a young age to know how to use them and respect them, and you know kind of see what they do. Yeah, I think some people with guns they're so careless though I went over to a family member's house and they had just left a loaded gun like next to their bed in their bedroom and I had a toddler and another baby and I was nursing and I didn't hear my toddler so I stopped and I went over and they had found the gun and I was so angry and upset.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I mean, I didn't even think about that, but that's something that happens all the time and they would consider themselves responsible gun owners, you know. But, they didn't think about it before. Little people came over to their house.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, I had a I was at somebody's house and they had a 45 right by the front door, like locked and loaded right there by the front door. Uh, you know a few younger kids, Um, but that's like, like in their head, that's what's keeping them safe.
Speaker 1:You know, that's like their, their freedom, right there. It's just blows my mind that we have we come to that situation, you know, um, because I've even had some friends. I've taken guns from them or they've turned them over to me, just, you know, for mental health purposes. And uh, when I was, when I was giving him back to, I was like, hey, I want to make sure your therapist knows I'm giving them back to you, and stuff like that. He said, oh, yeah, you know. So we did all that communication and when he opened his truck door he had another gun that's like, mounted on the side. He's like, yeah, I didn't feel safe, so I went and bought another one. It's just so easy to get it when I don't know, I just don't see the need for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you try to help somebody out and they just find a way around it. Yeah, it's really, I don't know, like living in Japan no guns I felt very safe and I run a lot and as a woman running, I'm always looking at all my surroundings but I felt way safer in Japan than I do running around here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a funny story when I was in Korea. It's a funny story when I was in, uh, korea. It's pretty safe off base in korea. Like most of the crime that happens is like on post or on base. Um, and I had a friend.
Speaker 1:He uh he lived off base, he was married and he would give his wife like little ounces of gold for like their uh anniversary or things like that. And so he had like forty thousand dollars in little chunks of gold in his house and he'd leave his door unlocked. And I'm like, dude, you gotta lock your door. And he's like there's no crime here. Like no man, I'm gonna rob you. Like you better lock your door. And so like he starts locking his door and he lived up on the second floor and uh, one day coming home he forgot that his door was locked and he like just tried to walk in and he like face planted into the door and stumbled backwards over his balcony and fell off his balcony and like ended up breaking a rib, all because I told him to lock his door oh no yeah, yeah and but yeah, yeah, just you know that culture.
Speaker 1:Even in Germany it was pretty safe. I was, you know, off base. Overseas cultures are just so much, were so fun to be a part of, you know, just to actually see how other cultures work.
Speaker 2:I was still pretty conservative when we lived in Italy and like they do have tons of theft there, but it's not as violent of crimes. Like they might steal everything out of your car or break into your house, but they're not gonna murder you. You know, I couldn't wrap my head around that at all at the time. I was like, if someone's in my house because you're not allowed to have your guns overseas, I was like, if someone's in your house, like I'm a woman, I'm alone, I gotta that guy. That was kind of my mentality.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. I got to protect myself, yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're like, no like they're not going to.
Speaker 1:Just don't take the dishes. They'll bounce in a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're just going to run away, but.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Not saying other crimes don't happen, but I feel like the presence of guns escalates everything and it escalates your response to everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah. Yeah, it's pretty wild seeing all the the road rage incidents now and you know, because everybody has cameras. But yeah, every once in a while you see somebody go back to their car and it's like, oh, that's, that's gonna end bad, uh, yeah you mentioned, like you know, in your travels, and you've kind of gone from being more conservative to to more, you know, liberal, left-leaning, um like, and if that's not a fair assessment, you know, let me know uh I've definitely I've flipped all the ways oh yeah I think I don't know when I first voted.
Speaker 2:I voted for Bush and then all the weapons of mass destruction and all that the first time or the second time. So 2004, yeah, that was my first election yeah 2004 yeah and I. That made me really upset, like how much lying happened and how many lives were taken. Oh yeah, I was done with Republicans after that and I've been pretty independent. But I was more paranoid Like not that it's wrong to be paranoid about the government, like we can't trust them really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah there's that. Can't trust them really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's that Seeing other countries and how they could function different ways and the mentality of their people. Like I was raised, socialism is evil and we don't want to pay any taxes and we got to prep for the end times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's Versus yeah, right yeah.
Speaker 1:And even when you look at the Great Recession, when that was going on, germany handled it probably better than any other nation, just because of their social safety nets that they have, where our bankruptcies like 62% of the bankruptcies had, you know, something to do with like medical um care, you know, or medical bills. So, yeah, you're absolutely right, it actually destroys people to. You know, break an ankle and now you're.
Speaker 2:You lose a job and now you're facing bankruptcy and it just snowballs so quick without that, you know, immediate medical coverage people don't have very much in savings, so just one big emergency thing can tank their whole family, especially with how expensive everything is right now. It just shouldn't be this way. It shouldn't be like this. It makes me really sad to see everybody struggling so much, being so stressed out, and we've created this system where really rich people are just going to keep getting richer and richer and our middle class like our middle class should feel good, but all of us feel really bad like, yeah, yeah, it's starting to shrink more and more, because now you know, folks even making over six figures they're saying they're struggling to get by.
Speaker 1:You know, and the folks you know, like teachers like that man, I'm, I made under 50 000. You know, and the folks you know, like teachers like that man I'm, I made under 50,000,. You know, when I was teaching, uh, so all those folks, they've been feeling it for a long time. But you know, now it's affecting more and more of the middle class. Um, yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right that this, uh, and it's mostly corporate greed too. You know, inflation only explains it so much that a study came out a few weeks ago that talked about, you know, 50% of the inflation just went towards profits.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Like that's definition of corporate greed right there. And you know I like that President Biden's trying to pass some things to make them pay their fair share a little bit, because there's all these problems we have solutions to, but you have to pay taxes like we have to.
Speaker 2:We have to have the revenue to fix these problems I read an article it might have been the atlantic, but they had done a deep dive just on bill gates and they were saying if bill gates paid his fair amount of taxes, it would be enough to fund the entire state department like you think of that like yeah I mean we have elon musk and all those. There's a bunch of rich people we're gonna see.
Speaker 1:He was so proud, yeah, he, yeah, we will definitely. Yeah, musk was so proud that he paid 11 billion and that's only like four and a half percent of his like, like, like his worth, you know, um, and so you're still paying way less than everybody else Like. And there's been a couple of times where he's said that he would pay for a solution like to the Flint water problem. He said that he would, you know, make sure that Flint has clean water that that did not pan out there.
Speaker 1:They're still getting dirty water out. Um, there was a world hunger thing where he's like if you show me a plan that I, that we could fix world hunger with my tax money, I'll do it and they gave him the plan.
Speaker 1:It was like six billion dollars to like solve world hunger, and he's like, oh, but this is every year. Yeah, no shit, you pay taxes every year. They eat every year. Like, yes, it's a yearly thing. Like so, yeah, yeah, these folks that you know have all these billions of dollars off of you know this, uh, ultra capitalism, you know that that we have now, um, they're, they're just robbing us blind at this point and we have to stand up and actually do something for it well, like bill gates, he became richer after he started.
Speaker 2:After he retired and started his charities. He was able to just funnel money through charities and that's pretty much what they do. They're like okay, well, I want to pick where my tax money goes, and then they fund all these other things and they can claim that they have no income and they can buy everything off credit. And it's great being ultra wealthy, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, and they don't even have to have the money. They just say, like you look what you know, trump went through. He just said he was rich. He's like yeah, guys, I got money. Yeah, it blows my mind, um, you know. So, so to bring it back around to like the, the school board elections, things like that, or to the school board, uh, like what are some things that folks should be looking to do to get involved here?
Speaker 2:I think showing up, if you can, to school board meetings and seeing what's going on already next year, the school board is planning on cutting all the meetings in half um so they only want to show up half the time.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that's what their whole plan is, but that's what they are saying so far, so there's less opportunity to speak and I don't know. I feel this board has just been really frustrating. They they've one of the board meetings. They told us that like no disruptions, like they didn't want us to clap or say anything, and a little girl got up and spoke about faster and how she didn't want that program in her school and she was really nervous.
Speaker 2:You could tell that she was having a hard time and when she finished speaking, like we clapped, and then they were like that's a, that's not okay that you clapped. And then we all kind of went Whoa, and then they all stormed out of the meeting. And they're like you guys are in timeout, for I forget what they said.
Speaker 2:They ended up going over that amount of time and then the security people came back in and they were like you need to clear the room. So they cleared the whole room, moved all the parents into the hallway and we had to all stand out there before they allowed us to go back in. Yeah. So then we started doing sign language applause like this for people.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so that it wouldn't make any noise. It blows my mind, cause, like you're at a school board meeting, that's like like your whole purpose of that is to like build children into like the next leaders and things like that, and that little girl stands up and is trying to be a leader.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe she was maybe eight years old.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, like that's the moment to encourage them and like show them they made a difference and the school board shut that down.
Speaker 2:That's pretty sad and they've I mean they started. Before they allow public speakers, they read a thing like warning you, if you say something you could be, you could have a lawsuit against you for defamation something you could be.
Speaker 1:You could have a lawsuit against you for defamation and just I mean I mean, if it's true, like right, well, it'd be a pretty easy lawsuit. Like yeah, because I know, uh uh, derrick there wilborn, um, rob rogers picks on him a lot. It's pretty funny. Uh yeah, he puts some some good stuff out. I mean it's crazy how him and Shandy got elected with all that dark money that got dumped in late in the election cycle. Um, at a school board level, like you know, they're raising half a million dollars. That is just insane and it immediately takes the voice away from the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, insane and it immediately takes the voice away from the community. Yeah, and also derek and amy asked them like stupid questions at the board meeting, like they don't know what they're doing at all oh really I'm like, why are you here?
Speaker 2:why are you here? Like they're like oh, I didn't know the schools did this, I didn't know they did this and here I am just moved here and I feel like I'm more educated on everything than they are. Like, yeah, they don't show up to stuff, or they'll show up and they'll just take a picture and leave yeah, yeah, life's easy when somebody's telling you what to think. You know, so yeah I don't know why they're there, Like why did they want those seats besides? Their egos or what's their plan.
Speaker 1:There's some interesting stepping stones, you know, for politicians and stuff like that, and that's all it is for them is. It's a stepping stone for them to get their name out, to rally a base so that they can make a bigger push for, you know, bigger offices, and that's their whole goal. They don't care about children at all. And making things better.
Speaker 2:You can see there's friction between Aaron Salt and Derek Wilburn. I don't think they get along, and when they have brought up the books to review, it's been on a 3-2 vote now. So Aaron and the two women have been voting Like they don't want to review the book, they just want to leave it in circulation. And then Derek and Amy are always voting. They want to have a discussion about it. So that's kind of where the book bands are now.
Speaker 1:It's so ridiculous because there's already a system in place by the libraries that if a parent doesn't want their kid to check out a book, they just identify that they they parent their kid how they want to parent their kid and they say they're not allowed to check this book out.
Speaker 2:Um yeah but like I don't understand the extra, I understand not wanting your kid to read a certain book.
Speaker 2:Um, someone like my son might be ready to read some books before my daughter you know, so I might want to like hold off on some things for her, because she's a lot more sensitive about certain things oh yeah maybe, maybe I'd want to make that choice, but I know that I can, you know, mark stuff if I don't want them to, or yeah, and that comes down to you being a good parent, too, and like paying attention to what your kids are reading, talking to them about what they're reading, cause some of the books that were on the band book list, it's cool.
Speaker 1:The public libraries usually have like a display of band books, which is nice, cause that's you just, it's like a one-stop shop right there. You're like, oh, these, which is nice, because that's you, just, it's like a one-stop shop right there. You're like, oh, these are all the things that we should be reading. If they don't want us to read it, we should be reading this, right. And so, like you know, we'll get my girls, will pick one off there and we'll sit down, you know, try to read it. And yeah, there was one about, you know, the African genocide in Rwanda and things like that.
Speaker 2:And it was a to have with kids, but like you have to have them.
Speaker 1:That's how we learn. That's how we move forward.
Speaker 2:That's one of the things I struggle with with parenting, like my daughter did a report on andrew jackson, and that's a tough one.
Speaker 1:I was like he's, so I like him so much.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, I was like, did you learn about the indian removal act? I'm like do I teach my eight-year-old about genocide now.
Speaker 1:Right how much do I tell her.
Speaker 2:I feel I'm like I don't know. It's really. It's difficult navigating parenting and I feel frustrated with my own education that I was given by the time I got to college and I started learning about Latin American politics, I just I felt like I'd been lied to, like you know, you're raised, America's the best and all these things, and like I still love America it's not that I dislike.
Speaker 2:America in any way. I just see things that we did wrong and I want to make sure we do better going forward. I think that's a lot of problem with people, too like they're like democrats hate america. I'm not a democrat, I'm unaffiliated, but they're like the left hates america. I'm like you know. You should be able to criticize and try to do better you can't just be like well, that sucks, and let it be, you know yeah, yeah, governing is an everyday thing.
Speaker 1:You can't just like pass a bill and like walk away but oh, mission accomplished. Um, you know, you look at like the NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, things like that. But like what that did to some of the Central and South America countries, you know we completely disrupted their economy to meet our economy's needs and then, once our needs changed, just left them in the lurch. And then that's when you get all these other you know governments put into place, that that you know that they just changed everything and now we have a huge border you know influx of you know refugees and asylum seekers coming. You know it all feeds together. We have to take responsibility. Yeah, right yeah, like.
Speaker 2:If you're gonna take people's economies out and then they're starving to death, what do you expect them to do? Yeah, like they're gonna show up at the border right. Yeah, they're starving to death. What do you expect them to do, Like they're?
Speaker 1:going to show up at the border Right. Yeah, they're going to find a better life wherever they. Can you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't know. We've participated in so many coups around the world also, so we've destabilized governments while also destabilizing economies, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know we have to take some responsibility for failed policies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Most people don't have any idea about any of those things though, yeah, there's that too.
Speaker 1:You know we do like to get pretty sensitive when we talk about, even like you know, critical race theory and things like that. You know everybody gets pretty sensitive if we talk about, uh, even like you know, critical race theory and things like that. You know everybody gets pretty sensitive if you know you say that people like andrew jackson are, you know, have a that duality like did some good things, did some bad things, like probably more bad things you know when you look at it.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, but people are afraid to have those conversations because they think it. It it affects who they are. I don't know, it just blows my mind really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't it is. It's a sad feeling, Like you don't want to. I think a lot of people just don't want to look at the bad thing, cause it makes them feel bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but.
Speaker 2:I want to know.
Speaker 1:I want to know the truth, or I want to know how people are affected by different things. It's the only way to make it better. We all know things are broken. Things need to be fixed.
Speaker 2:The only way you fix them is by rooting out the evil and rooting out the root cause. Yeah, like we need to fix immigration. It's an issue, it's been an issue. Nobody wants to touch it, they just let it get worse.
Speaker 1:The process right now is so bad and a lot of it comes down to we don't have the pipeline for, like, judges and things like that in order to properly fund these things. Um, and then when we do have a compromise bill, we have people blocking it. Yeah, and that bill was so right-wing, it was so. Oh, 100%.
Speaker 2:It was like yeah, this is really I don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think a lot of Democrats.
Speaker 2:I'm not a Joe Biden fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm going to vote for him, but I would rather have somebody different.
Speaker 1:So I think a lot of Democrats were happy that the Republicans rejected it up front so that they didn't have to. Yeah, you know, yeah, you're right. That was a very compromised bill, you know.
Speaker 2:when it comes to folks on the left, All this rhetoric is so dehumanizing of immigrants and I've had people in my own family how they talk about people.
Speaker 1:I'm like these are people living beings with children and yeah, I don't feel like we're valuing humans in this whole thing and you know what I because you know what I you know, being a veteran, you know and talking to I work pretty close with the uh community, the pride community around here, like helping with their parade and things, and when I talk to some of the vets they kind of like hesitate at it and I'm like you know, you've served with these people. I don't want to say these people, but you know you served with somebody that was identified in the LGBT community. You know that, but they're like, oh yeah, was identified in the LGBT community. You know that, but they're like, oh yeah, they're the good ones and things like that. They have these conversations, these thought process and it just blows my mind that it's still so archaic and they think that they only met the one good one in the world.
Speaker 1:You know, immigrant, lgbt, whatever but we have contact with them all the time. They're a huge part of our economy, they're a huge part of our day-to-day lives. You know, just in the buildings that we see going around here and a lot of them pay taxes, right. So, yeah, the hate for them is just unfounded.
Speaker 2:So much othering. Like you know, gay people have children, they have jobs, they like to go hiking, they like to do the same things you and I do every day. But for some reason like certain groups like to use them as, like a place to put all their hatred.
Speaker 1:I'm like they just want to live their lives.
Speaker 2:They just want the same freedoms as everybody else. And you don't have to understand somebody to respect somebody you know, like you don't have to understand their feelings. Nobody's asking you to make sure you understand all their feelings Like just respect each other. Yeah, yeah, quit being on a witch hunt to write mean reviews on stuff, right yeah?
Speaker 1:but it's just so much easier to sell hate. You know, like the powers that be, that they know what sells.
Speaker 2:You know, when you look at the media and things like that and it's these culture wars get a lot of people and it's just easier to hate people than to actually show that respect it's really interesting because my dad always told me growing up like you may not like what someone has to say, but you need to defend their right to say it and you need to live and let live kind of mentality, and I feel like the right has really lost that completely. I like have these weird check boxes of what makes you like a true Republican slash right wing person now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And a lot of it's very fascist, I feel, and that they want to like, control people and like these people, like they want to make personal, individual calls on people's lives instead of letting them make choices for calls on people's lives instead of letting them make choices for themselves. It's very, I don't know odd compared to what it was when I was growing up. I feel like but yeah, they've.
Speaker 1:They've lost any kind of like ability to communicate, even within their own party. You see them not even be able to communicate within their own party. It's you know my way, or the highway type of thing. Um and it just affects everybody so much, because how stagnant congress is right now yeah, I think this is the least productive congress ever right yeah, yeah, historical yeah and marjorie taylor, green, is like oh, let's do another recall like okay, I mean, they're getting good at it.
Speaker 1:They've had like 19 of these votes now, so they should be more efficient at electing a speaker. I think that's what they're going for.
Speaker 2:I think their goal is just to have nothing work and a lot of people just want to take the government out. I feel like 100%. Take them out.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, you, you know you draw that conclusion because you know I kind of draw that conclusion when you look at uh, shandy and willborn and d20. They're there to sabotage the public school system, even though everybody comes in contact with public school graduates every day. They want to privatize it and push everybody into charter schools. Right, they can get that, that big paycheck. So, yeah, they don't govern anymore.
Speaker 2:They subvert government and think that's governing it's so kind of incestuous, like the webs of all the conservative people in el paso county, like well, aaron salt works over at woodland, then he's on our D20 board and then he's also on the Pikes Peak Library District board. I'm like how many things are you going to? Do what are you doing and I don't know. It's just like breaking down all these different institutions.
Speaker 1:I feel like I don't know, so the next school board elections they're next year, right, I think it's 2025. Yeah yeah, yeah, so every off year, um or two years, yeah, uh do. Do people know who's running yet for that or who's? Is there going to be a challenge for?
Speaker 2:I haven't heard who's running. Nobody's announced anything yet. Um, yeah, I don't know. A lot of people are, so I think a lot of people were really exhausted with the last election, like these are things they've been pushing for, and then they were beat by the votes yeah I don't know I don't know how to get more aware like this is happening, like what do we do?
Speaker 1:yeah, how many people. Like I don't know, if you didn't know that, like I was curious on like how many people are in d20 or like how, like how many people are in each one of these school districts. Is there like a, a number that bases that these districts are based off of?
Speaker 2:I don't have the numbers on me, but, um, like voting wise, somebody showed me the breakdowns. So the older people turn out to vote a lot more. So there's been a lot of that we've been trying to talk about, like how can we get high schoolers registered to vote and get them involved so that it becomes a habit for them to always vote?
Speaker 2:yeah um, I feel conservatives are better at showing up to vote a lot of times, at least traditionally, like I've always voted if I can, unless it's in the middle of a move and the registration is messed up in the process. I've always voted, so I don't understand the mentality of not voting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of things that go into that. You know, I think we need to like get rid of the whole Tuesday thing. You know, I think Colorado does a great job with 100% mail. Everybody gets a mail-in ballot and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the Tuesday, yeah but the.
Speaker 1:Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Go ahead.
Speaker 2:The in-person voting. I felt the mail system for Colorado was so great while we were overseas. Because, I've just been voting in Douglas County this whole time and I always have my ballot and I could look.
Speaker 1:I liked being able to look the candidates up online and research it as I'm filling out my ballot to figure out what I'm gonna do there's another uh initiative that I'm working with the guy around here, um, to get paid postage on ballots. So right now, like you know, when you your ballot you have to put a stamp on and mail it in. Finding a stamp now isn't always easy. You know the 68 cents it has. Not everybody has that 68 cents. So we're trying to push for legislation, you know, long-term, to get paid postage where you just drop it in the mailbox and it gets sent, so there's no extra stamp tax or anything like that to vote. But it's a process and but it's you know we're trying to get it into the some specific communities right now just to try to, you know, see how effective it is so that we can, you know, get some numbers for to drive that legislation. But yeah, small things like that go a long way to just helping people have a stamp so that they can mail their ballot.
Speaker 2:You know it'll help increase our participation levels I think another thing that's really confusing is with the military population knowing which election you're allowed to vote in, like a lot of people are like wait, am I allowed to vote here since I live here, or is it based on my like home of record?
Speaker 1:yeah, I really wish Colorado would get rid of the the state tax for military, because I think that would drive a lot of folks to be more present in their local politics. Because I never got involved with local politics because I was always an Arizona resident, that's where we moved from um and so, yeah, you just don't pay attention to those local things, because I was voting for you know Mark Kelly down in Arizona, you know versus, you know Hickenlooper here. So, yeah, I think that's something that Colorado definitely needs to look at. We've got such a huge population here. I think that would help us out a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, a lot of people. If they end up in Florida or Texas, they just keep that Exactly. With the Texas, they just keep that Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and as progressive as like the Air Force and the Space Force is, I think that would give a good boost to like the Democrat side. Yeah, the folks that already got the tax-free in Florida and Texas, they'll keep theirs there. But if you give people a different option, you give them a blue state to come to and be tax-free, we'll reap the benefits from that.
Speaker 2:It's one of the many things that we need to fix Easy stuff.
Speaker 1:It's difficult with the school board because I know there are military people who are concerned with things that are happening, but they're like I don't know, like, uh, yeah, yeah, it's hard to get involved, and then I mean there's also that chance of not being around in a year or two. Also, you know, there's always yeah, it's so hectic when you're in that military lifestyle or any lifestyle really. Um well, hey, thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. I really appreciate it. I hope you keep staying involved. I hope you run for the school board. I think that'd be pretty cool, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I know you got a lot of kids and you probably need to shed some. You know some of that responsibility first, but I think you'd be a great candidate for it.
Speaker 2:I think I'd become a better public speaker. The idea of being on a stage makes me want to throw up, but I speak out at the meetings and I testified on some legislation remotely this year and everything. I'm trying to work on it but I don't know who's going to run. But I'll be there supporting them.
Speaker 1:If public speaking makes you feel like throwing up, just throw up and get it out of the way, and then just go do the speaking, just bring my campaign bucket around with me, yeah right.
Speaker 2:Champion bucket yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, thanks for taking the time to talk and, yeah, we'll be in touch and if you need anything, just reach out here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:So there you have it, my conversation with Megan, a concerned parent up in District 20 here in Colorado Springs. Thank you, megan, for reaching out and wanting to share your story. I really definitely appreciated you coming on and sharing. If anybody else again wants to have their story be told or come on here, please reach out at info at epccpvorg and we'll hear what you have to say.
Speaker 1:Now for a quick word from our sponsor, native Roots. You know Native Roots this year is putting on a pretty big push for the recreational cannabis here in Colorado Springs. Now this is something that's going to bring us a lot of tax money. Um, it's going to not increase any amount of stores or anything like that. There's not going to be any new licenses Uh, it's just going to make sure that tax money stays here to help solve some of our problems here. Uh, that five percent tax that was passed a couple years ago. It's going to go towards helping with homeless situations. Uh, veterans suffering from ptsd and just general safety issues. Um, so something that we need to get past.
Speaker 1:So native roots they're not the only person or the only company in this council. They got like a little weed council that they got, but they are a big part in there. They are our biggest sponsor too, so definitely want to support them full bore. So wherever you see me out in the community, I'll have the petition with me to get it on the ballot in November. So make sure you come up and we'll talk about that. But thanks for tuning in Again. We're going to be getting these out more often. If you have any questions concerns comments, please reach out to us again. Info at epccpvorg and check out the website epccpvorg. Thanks everybody, take care.
