The John Mason Talk-Walk, February 17, 2023

I speak about the need to involve oneself in the electoral process, and of the rail derailment and environmental danger in Ohio. 

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SPEAKER_00 1:08

Hello, hello, hello, John Mason. How is everybody? Well, I and the rest of the residents of Philadelphia are getting prepared to for uh the primary election day. I am preparing myself in my capacities as a committee person in my ward and as an election board worker. I encourage each and every one of you to take part in the process. Voting definitely. Definitely. Please get out there and vote. They do pay attention to our vote vote votes. They do pay attention to our votes, sorry. If you can get yourself involved in the actual uh nuts and bolts of it. If you think you try running for a committee person in your in your ward. Try being an election board worker. Lord knows what we can do with them. People making sense of the uh election system and people and some right racist neo-Nazi thugs have tried to terrorize some to uh g give it up so as to undermine our democracy. Don't let them. Please consider being an election board worker. Contact your county's uh voting office and ask them how do I be an election board worker? And also, I get that this asked a lot, consider running for an office. All offices of election are elected offices are imported from President of the United States on down to state legislatures, county raw offices like Register of Wills, Sheriff, Recorder of Deeds, County Commissioners, Township Commissioners, City Councils, they're all important. Take them seriously. Because these are the offices that directly affect us. This is how law political careers get started. Consider it. And we must also consider the great tragedy in East Palestine, Ohio. Where early this month a railroad train of the Norfolk Southern Line, yeah, the Norfolk Southern Line was derailed. It caught on fire with the chemical vinyl chloride, which is highly flammable and toxic. And you see the need to regulate uh the rail industry. Let them make a profit, but let that not be at the expenses of its workers or the people in the community the surrounding communities. Employees of the Norfolk Southern line have kept telling management about the problems with safety in the trains, but they were ignored. And these geniuses of free enterprise at Norfolk Southern would not attend the town hall meeting to discuss it. Shows you the kind of gutless cowards that rule our economy. So and they have their enablers in Congress and in the Fox and in Fox News talking about dumb stuff about the dangers of wokeness and the dangers of decriminalizing marijuana and the dangers of Hunter Biden's laptop. They're consume a stupid shit. Which is why we must must pay attention to what goes on among our elected officials. We simply have to have to involve ourselves in the system. Pay attention to to the bills going on in your uh state the state legislature and and and county commissioners and city councils. If you can attend the meeting of your uh state legislature or city council or county commissioners, it'd be great to do so. Interact with them. See them in person rather than through the media. And let us for abandon once more the idea of ending all regulation of so-called free enterprise. The plumes of smoke from the vinyl chloride fueled fire has brought an economic disaster to that portion of Ohio bordering Pennsylvania. Wildlife is endangered, fish are dying by the thousands, people could be killed. There's people with respiratory problems that have to breathe that stuff. And the stress of living in an area that you can't live in. That's that is terrible. I urge you, let us do what we can for the people in and around East Palestine, Ohio. If there's any support any uh uh relief efforts uh going on, latch in on them. And please, so that this never happens again, get on the case of your Congress member or senator and have them deal with this intelligently. And pay attention to the workers. Unlike the corporate company uh board of directors, the workers uh see first hand the dangers of facing they face and that the community faces, like the breakdown of the engines, the breakdown of equipment, the occupational safety and health problems, the danger to themselves, the danger to communities. But does the does the board care? No. They're only out for the profits, maximalizing profits. And there have been hefty profits for Norfolk Southern Southern. But do they but they do do they reinvest it in uh safe uh safety and health issues, improving uh the equipment, the the engines, the the rack the rails? Uh uh uh free enterprise. Capitalism is too important to too important to be left to the capitalist. Our lives and our health as workers, as members of the community depend that companies like Norfolk Southern be accountable for what they do to communities. Well So get out there and vote and please pay attention to the issues such as uh the environment and workers' safety and safety in the communities, and particularly safety in the railroad industry. Okay, that's it for me. Now advertisements. My novel Soldier of the Cross is available on a man who lived the early part of his life as a whore chaser and drunken school bully. And he becomes a born-again Christian and he is totally zealous for Christ and just wants to be a good Christian man, but he goes about it the wrong way. Please look it up on Amazon, Soldier of the Cross. And now Himperific is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue near 15th Street in South Philadelphia. There you will find some of the finest cannabis-infused products: flour and gummies and candies and drinks and teas and lip balm and hand sanitizer and dog trees. Yep, dog trees. Look them up, please. Hemporificlc.com. And also my beloved career and business coach, Michelle Snow. Michelle is excellent in helping you develop your professional career and your small business. Let you know what you're doing right, where you need work, and help you network with other up-and-coming professionals. Please look her up. Grow with snow.com. Okay, that's it for now. Just have us a nice weekend and be fresh for the fight. You know I will. Take care. Ah