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United States of PTSD
Season One: Mental health concerns are on the rise in the United States. This podcast will look at the influencing factors contributing to the decline of our culture. With the rise of school shootings, political divisiveness, increasing levels of hate, and a chronic war of peoples' rights, we have entered a domestic war that never ends. Our podcast will look at whether this is done by design or is it an abject failure. We will discuss it from a clinical and common-sense perspective. Secondarily we will discuss ways to protect yourself from being further traumatized. Hosted by Matthew Boucher LICSW LCDP (licensed in RI) who has over 20 years of experience working with people who have addictions and trauma with a specialty of pregnant/postpartum women. Co-host Wendy Picard is a Learning and Development consultant with 15 years of experience, lifelong observer of the human condition, and diagnosed with PTSD in 1994.
Season Two: Is joined by Donna Gaudette and Julia Kirkpatrick BSW. Julia is currently working on obtaining her MSW and her LCSW. She is a welcome addition to the podcast.
Season Three: Cora Lee Kennedy provided research and worked as a temporary co-host. Dr. Erika Lin-Hendel joins as a co-host for season 3.
United States of PTSD
S 3 E:19 School gun fire, corrupt politics, and dangerous rhetoric, oh my!
A foreshadowing of the national impending healthcare collapse as we see the beginnings of it in Rhode Island. As mental health workers face increasing dangers from understaffing, violence, and corporate retaliation against unionization efforts. Matt shares his terrifying classroom experience with possible gunfire, highlighting educators' vulnerability in America's gun violence epidemic, while Erika exposes the expanding network of privatized immigrant detention centers that are akin to the start of concentration camps. Towards the end of the episode we welcome Hannah John Damarjian.
• Rhode Island healthcare system facing multiple facility closures and bankruptcy filings
• Mental health hospital fired all striking nurses who demanded safer staffing ratios
• Multiple cases of healthcare workers murdered or seriously injured by patients discussed
• Matt recounts hearing gunshots outside his classroom with 27 students and no way to lock doors
• Private corporations like CoreCivic and GeoGroup operating immigrant detention centers in flood zones
• Laura Loomer's disturbing comments about "alligator meals" target Latino populations
• Palestinian American guest John discusses running for office as a young candidate
• Average age of Congress (63) disconnected from challenges facing younger generations
• Money in politics corrupts even well-intentioned candidates
• Rhode Island's "Homeless Bill of Rights" criticized as performative rather than substantive
Join us next time when we continue our conversation with John about his experiences as a Palestinian American and his journey into politics.
Laura Loomer’s “65 Million Meals” Comment: What She Actually Said—and Why It’s So Dangerous
https://youtube.com/@johnsharestories
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/no-time-to-die
License code: S4CEQWLNQXVZUMU4
Artwork and logo design by Misty Rae.
Special thanks to Joanna Roux for editing help.
Special thanks to the listeners and all the wonderful people who helped listen to and provide feedback on the episode's prerelease.
Please feel free to email Matt topics or suggestions, questions or feedback.
Matt@unitedstatesofPTSD.com
This podcast is not intended to serve as therapeutic advice or to replace any professional treatment. These opinions belong to us and do not reflect any company or agency.
Speaker 3:Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of the United States of PTSD. I have the absolutely wonderful and fabulous Erica with me again today.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 3:I love having you here.
Speaker 1:It's very nourishing.
Speaker 3:One of the best things that's come out of creating this podcast has been meeting you, by the way.
Speaker 3:I just have to say so it was seriously, so it's been such a blessing and privilege. We originally had a guest speaker that was going to come on, but we actually don't know what happened to the speaker. So Eric and I are going to talk about some other topics today that are equally important. I'm going to cover a couple of local events here over on the East Coast in Rhode Island and, Erica, you're going to talk about a wonderful and I say that sarcastically person over there at your deck of the woods.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll talk about some things happening over in the borderlands. Oh man, so an update. I know a couple episodes ago we talked about why I talked about how there was a lot of issues with healthcare in Rhode Island and, as far as I know, the place that was closing, anchor, which is the one of the biggest places for primary care doctors, closed. But a couple of other things I wanted to just briefly mention is that we also had a situation with a hospital that specializes in mental health and they had the nurses there had gone on strike because of poor working conditions.
Speaker 3:There's a problem with patient to staff ratio. As a matter of fact, there was an incident I think it was a year ago where a nurse at Rhode Island Hospital was assaulted by a patient and almost died, and they did a nice PR stunt where it seems like they blamed the nurse for not following protocol that didn't exist yeah, not the actual staff, like the nurses, but the higher ups and he almost died. It was a pretty horrific thing. So these nurses went on strike and the hospital's response was to just terminate all their jobs, which makes me laugh, because who is ever going to work for that company now?
Speaker 1:I mean, that is what you would hope.
Speaker 3:True, yes, yes, I guess that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, I think that, like Matt, if you're willing to share as a perspective, as a mental health care worker who, like, understands the importance of client and patient to person ratio under those conditions, like, could you like walk our listeners through, like, some of the reasons why it's so important, even though, like you have the obvious like, could you, could you like walk our listeners through, like, some of the reasons why it's so important, even though, like you have the obvious consequence of, like somebody having their physical safety compromised to the point of almost being killed? You know, can you just share a little bit?
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually two things come to mind immediately. One of them I talked about way back in season one, before I met you. Erica and I had a student that was murdered and she worked in a homeless shelter. I don't know the staffing situation, but most again, most places are understaffed and there was somebody who came in that I think was a resident or somebody that was staying at the shelter and murdered her with an ax. And I know that there were staff members there, but I don't know how many there were.
Speaker 3:But there was another incident recently in Connecticut where I think it was, a visiting nurse was doing a home visit on a, I guess, a patient she had seen before and the patient kidnapped her, murdered her and she was in the basement for, I think, a couple of days before they found her. So we and then the incident I just talked about about the nurse being assaulted and if I remember correctly I might be off on this, but it was over a phone the nurse was trying to follow a no phone policy for the people coming in and the patient punched him in the chest and I guess he went to the bathroom. He seemed fine and then he passed out of the bathroom and had some sort of major cardiac episode, and so it's really important, especially when you're dealing with people who are compromised, whether it's through things like strokes or organic stuff going on that changes the way they're thinking, or if it's a mental health issue. Right, there was another case this is probably decades ago because it was when I first started where there was a social worker and a nurse doing a home visit on a client they had been seeing for a very long time who had schizophrenia, and the patient stopped taking the medication. So when the visiting team showed up, the patient was psychotic and ended up stabbing, I think, the social worker in the head with a knife and killed them.
Speaker 3:I think that it was one of the two was stabbed, I don't remember which one. So these are all incidents of why it's so important for us to have staff that matches the patient or client caseload, because you just never know. You never know what's going to happen. I mean, we deal with people who are incredibly compromised.
Speaker 1:So I think there are some things that I want to bring up as well in this discussion, because, you know veterinary medicine we have patients that can kill us too, and it's not like I want to emphasize the fact that it's like not the fault of a person or an animal in of like that there is a risk that we are taking, like every veterinary professional that goes into a room with a 120 pound canine corso that they've never met before is taking a physical risk, like a life physical risk to serve, physical risk to serve right.
Speaker 1:And so I do want to bring up that complexity because, like, while we talk about these things that are about violence being like, I guess, like with violence itself, that sometimes doesn't have a lot of good explanations around it or not a whole lot of reasoning around it, it can be very difficult to hear about that, and so I do want to put forward that, you know, as devastating as these types of risks and losses are, there are ways to do it safely right. We can't be 100% safe all the time, but, um, both people and animals, um, and living beings that, um, that uh, can be dangerous to work with at times, are also very deeply deserving of care and compassion. Um, so I want to pair that with that, because sometimes, sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thank you for pointing that out. I've actually heard stories from vets too about dealing with their patient not the animal patient, but the human patient. Oh gosh being threatened, being like assaulted, being followed home, like all of these terrible things, and that's stuff that I don't think a lot of people are aware of. That I mean, I certainly was not aware of it until I heard about it, cause you just don't think about that stuff until you experience it and, honestly, I think it's very difficult to talk about, like, preparing right.
Speaker 1:I think that preparing and understanding preparing to respond is something and in veterinary medicine, one way that we are prepared to respond is we're not alone. We don't go into these situations alone, because if you have people who are experienced and know how to respond with veter, you know the types of like. You know with veterinary medicine, we have medications that we use to help a process and I think that it's important that, like fundamentally that's why it's so compromising of safety to be understaffed when you're working with a population that is at risk for having incapacitated responses.
Speaker 3:Which that the understaffing issue is going to lead into the second part of the story I have to tell. But I want to go back just to there's two other things I wanted to mention that were happening in Rhode Island. Another one is our favorite insurance company and again I say that sarcastically united is getting into some sort of pissing contest with the biggest hospital network in the state and now they're deciding at least my understanding is they're deciding that they're considering that hospital and all its partners out of network and not paying for any of their services. So we have, and not paying for any of their services, so we have. Oh, and then the other major place in Rhode Island who does primary care work has also filed bankruptcy.
Speaker 3:So when you put all of those things together and then the reimbursement rates are garbage in Rhode Island, doctors are fleeing the state we don't even have. We do not have one dental clinic in the entire state that people can go to for emergencies at all. Like no hospital in the entire state that people can go to for emergencies at all. Like no hospital in the entire state will treat dental stuff. You'll have to get an appointment with a dentist a couple days later. I found that out the hard way when I had a dental issue. So the state in general is a is a hellscape when it comes to health care right now, and it's getting worse. It's a hundred percent you're basically you.
Speaker 1:Basically, you and your community are experiencing what many more parts of the country will be experiencing soon.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and we've been experiencing this for a while. If you look at the surrounding states Connecticut, massachusetts the reimbursement rate is so much better that all of the doctors in Rhode Island are kind of fleeing. And personally again, this is just my opinion I think a lot of it has to do with mismanagement of money. I mean, there's so much revenue that's brought in from the legalization of marijuana in Rhode Island. I don't know where that money's going, and we have, I think it's, the second highest cigarette tax in the state. I'm not sure where that money is going either.
Speaker 3:So actually I do know where it went, because one of the one of the core had done a research on this before it was going to the general fund, and where the general fund is actually utilized I have no idea. But it makes you think, and we'll talk about this later on too. If we took the money we're spending on creating wars and committing genocide and took the money that we're utilizing to bring in the Gestapo in the United States and take out everybody that they think looks like a foreign person, well I don't know, maybe we'd have money for housing, health care and food, but that's a that's a whole other issue. We'll get to that part in a second.
Speaker 1:And if unionization action and striking action wasn't dealt with illegally by corporations by firing people, because that is called retaliation Right, and if we had an administration that respected unions, then you know we might be in a better position.
Speaker 3:So true, so true.
Speaker 1:So true.
Speaker 3:So I want to go to the crux of what I had to say, which I'm still processing, even though it was a couple of weeks later. As you know, I teach and I was teaching a summer class Last day of class. There was a total of 27 students that are typically in this class, but there was a couple of students that were missing. That's a larger size class. Generally we have about 22, 23. And I don't have a problem with teaching extra students and this was actually a fantastic class. It was a wonderful group of students. We had three presentations to do that day and this class is specifically about them doing policy work or doing something around making change. And ironically, we had one group was doing gun safety and the recent law that went into effect in Rhode Island about assault rifles, banning them. And here we are, we're about to do the third presentation and we hear a loud bang that sounds like a gunshot, like right outside the window.
Speaker 3:And I've lived in Providence. I lived in Providence for 12 years and during the summer we always played the game gunshot or firework, because you never knew what it was. And Providence, I could tell you right now, downplays the amount of gunfire that goes on in that city. I remember there was a vacation I had taken where there were 22 gunshots fired on my street. That's actually one of the reasons why I ended up moving out. And there was a meeting we had with the police chief and the local councilwoman and I remember them basically saying that if the bullet doesn't connect with anything or if they don't find the bullet, they don't consider it a shooting. Therefore, you can play with the numbers and make it sound like gun violence is going down if you don't look for the bullets and you don't look for where they land. It can sound like gun violence is going down if you don't look for the bullets and you don't look for where they land. But anyway it didn't.
Speaker 3:Having heard fireworks, I should also say it was during the day, so fireworks generally don't go off during the day, at least normally, and everybody just kind of stopped. The classroom is also all windows and I thought what the heck? And then all of a sudden we hear three more and they were very loud. They could have been fireworks. Nobody in the class thought they were fireworks. And I should also add we have some gun owners that were students and they actually had said that's gunfire. So there wasn't one person there that actually believed it was fireworks and I thought to myself what the hell do I do right now? Right, so I don't. I don't have keys to the building, I can't lock the door.
Speaker 3:Most college campuses, all the buildings, are open. This isn't just particular to our college campus. I mean, most of them are accessible all the time. And I thought what the hell do I do right now? How do I control this many people in a setting that we don't really have any training for? And I thought, okay, we have a. You know, we have this room in the basement that is more of an auditorium room and it's it's, it's. There's two doors and they're heavier, so they're they're easier to, I think, barricade. So I just said everybody get downstairs, go into the auditorium. So they all went down there and we called campus security, which led to another problem, because apparently campus security doesn't carry guns, because they're not allowed to, which then effectively makes them useless, because what are they going to do if there's an active shooter? Absolutely nothing.
Speaker 3:Now, in the meantime, we continue to hear these noises, but they were getting further away, which also makes me think they were gunfire, because if it was fireworks, they would all be the same distance, you wouldn't be hearing them kind of go away and you talk about. I've never thought about that as a college educator, it's never crossed my mind. That, seriously, I think, and realizing the vulnerability, realizing that I am now responsible for all of these people and how much better it would be if there was another person that could have helped me do that, I mean, I think, or even if there was training, because we're not trained on that stuff. And it was incredibly terrifying. And one of one of the students had pointed out that the, the younger students, actually did better because they're used to it. They're used to it and the older students did not. Right, nor did I. Like I was fine in the moment, like I think, in the moment I just thought, okay, protect them, get this done, kind of stay focused, do what you need to do. And then I was driving home and I was it kind of all hit me when I was driving home like, oh my god, like any one of us could have died if that, if that was a like a school shooter, I think.
Speaker 3:In my uh, amateur assessment of what happened, I think it was probably somebody driving by close to the campus because there's a lot of gang activity in providence, so it could have been somebody firing at a car or whatever. I don't think it was actually something that happened on campus. I just think it was really close by, you know, and the Providence police did come out and they were actually really helpful, they were really friendly and they were. I think they were great in the way that they handled it. But no educator, no student, no faculty member, nobody should have to deal with that, nobody. And I don't know that having more staff would, would you know, fix that if they were real. But you know, with the summer classes, nobody on campus. So it's, it's even, it's even worse. And that was just it was. It was terrifying, it was absolutely terrifying. I really felt for my students and I, I, we. In that moment I was really like holy shit, I could die right now.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, I mean, I think that there are things that the things that I think are really important when you're when navigating an acute trauma that is involving violence, and also like the threat of public violence.
Speaker 1:I think it's important to be having conversations both before right which are things that you're saying that at your particular campus, like that didn't feel like that that had happened. And and after Right and that aftercare. And I think that that's going to be even more essential because right now, like, as as we know, like public violence is a new norm of our, of our, of our world here, and, you know, we've been able to avoid it to a certain circumstance in a lot of ways, but now, like it's happening all over the country as far as state public violence. So I think that what I'd like to check in with you about is about your students. As far as the conversations you were able to have after, do you feel like there was some collective processing that you all were able to do, or was it kind of like I know it was like was it like the last day of class?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was the last, literally the last day of class. Like the last day of class, yeah, it was the last, literally the last day of class. And after, after they cleared, the police cleared the building and cleared the area, there was one group who still had to do a presentation and they didn't feel safe being in the building and I certainly was not going to make anybody stay in the building. Under those circumstances I was like, absolutely, I totally get it, you know, but then you have the problem of grades being due and like all this stuff. So I made arrangements with them to just do it online afterwards, because I never.
Speaker 3:I mean, there are people that go to that, that teach, just to get a paycheck. We know that. Right, that is not me. I go to class, I care about my students. I'm very invested in my students. So that night consisted of me sending out an email to the whole class and then getting you know, responding to students individually, calling them on the phone, checking with them the next day, and then I was able to get them connected with the counseling center at school to do like a group processing thing. My supervisor was great in telling me, really validating what I did, and saying like here's, you know, let's get them connected and that's what we did. So you know? Again, it's just like nobody should have to go through that right, like nobody. And school should be a place that people go to learn, not worry about getting shot or deported or kidnapped or like sex trafficked or bombed or like it's.
Speaker 3:I don't know what happened. Like I really don't know how we got here. I mean, I know how we're progressing, I just don't know, like where it was.
Speaker 1:That, like that, that pivotal moment was, you know yeah, I think that when we're trying to process, uh, the loss of collective safety, you know, I, I, I think at at times, you do the best you can with what you have and you circle back and you make sure that everyone is checked in with. And this is so. You know, matt and I are going to be having conversations with people about organizing and community organizing, and I think that this is the why, right. The why is because humans get through trauma better together than in isolation.
Speaker 3:So true, I actually, by the way, I meant to plug this book. I haven't finished reading it yet, but I'll show you. It's called Genocide Bad. Have you seen this? No, actually, you would really like it, because the author's name is Sim Kern and my understanding is that they are a trans Jewish person who is talking about how bad what's happening in Palestine is right now, and there was something in their book that I thought was really awesome, where they and I don't know what the laws are on reading from the book. I'll just summarize it and this is in. Again, it's by Sim Kern and it's called Genocide Bad and they basically talk about the illusion of the DNC and how the DNC kind of always runs on this. This fear of everything is going to fall apart and they need to kind of save the world, but at the same time, behind the scenes, they're also pursuing policies about mass deportation, mass incarceration, like all the same stuff. They're all owned by AIPAC. Like there's literally no difference between the two sides. One just looks prettier.
Speaker 1:I so did. We want to shift to the borderlands.
Speaker 3:We can totally shift to that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, because that's what this feels like.
Speaker 3:Yes, I thought it was a nice transition.
Speaker 1:So I live in Arizona. I have a friend who lives in Florence, arizona. Florence Arizona is a site of two of the detention centers and also where they are wanting to build more. Now let me make this very, very, very clear for any audience member who this space is new these detention centers are run by private companies. Centers are run by private companies. The two largest one is CoreCivic and GeoGroup are the two largest ones, so this is like private. What is being built is a private detention system or privately owned prison system for immigrants, regardless of status.
Speaker 3:And I wish this is obviously the verbiage that they're using, not that you're using the whole detention center like. Let's call it what it is. It's kidnapping. It's a concentration camp. It's a kidnapping concentration camp. Let's just call it that. It's like. I get so angry, even with like, even with people who claim to be pro-Palestinian when they keep talking about the war between Israel and Gaza. It is not a war, it is a genocide, and I correct this over and, over and over again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. These prisons, these concentration camps, the most recent of which in the news, you know, is in Florida where, as built appropriately, so already flooding day one in the path of hurricanes that they say it can withstand up to a category two hurricane that region has had.
Speaker 1:all of the most recent ones have been above that and you know there's commentary um from the the right, like uh, laura loomer, who has has a great whack-a-doodle influence on our current president, as was seen when a conversation with her resulted in some staff members getting fired or removed from their positions and she, and she said you're gonna say what she said how about you say it I don't, I don't know I don't know what really she said something about oh god, now we're gonna look it up okay, well, you look it up while I, while I I fill in the space.
Speaker 3:She cause? Is she referring it to the fact that you know our, our dear leader?
Speaker 1:wanted to open up alcatraz itself. And then you know, instead we're going to put millions. Well, that was, you know, not, not economically feasible, right?
Speaker 3:so this is where I found it and I'll reference this. Actually, let me cut it out right now, because this is coming from a place called Proximity Portal, substack, and she said alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now. And the reason why that's so concerning well, I'm sure most people can figure out that's concerning is because there's approximately 65 million Latino, hispanic people in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. Now, obviously, there are not 65 million undocumented people living here, right? So this is referencing the entire latino population in the country by saying uh, let's throw them all on alligator, alligator, alcatraz. The fact that she can say that is and and it's okay for people to hear that is so disturbing is so disturbing.
Speaker 3:We've seen this happen in history many, many, many times. Where people are denying there's a genocide happening, where people are denying that people are being targeted and we know exactly where this ends up. I had a client who said to me months and months and months ago he said the way of Gaza is going to become the way of the United States. And I thought I was like no, that can't be right. But he's right, he's 100% right, that is going to happen here.
Speaker 1:So I mean, this is, this is our intention, dear listeners. It's not to be alarmist, it is to be real, right, because these are also, in addition to that, it is, the conditions in which our mental health is existing. So this is a collectively traumatizing event around this country. Everywhere are going to witness an increasingly militarized state police force that is is being in, in, that is employing a certain cohort of people right, that have a certain belief system people who are just doing their job right Like that is not going to fly.
Speaker 1:People who agree with 65 billion people being ethnically cleansed, right? So there are important things to know about and these are talking points that you can utilize and you can continue to train yourself to the advocates in this work and to stay active in this work, because taking action can make people feel more grounded during this process. So we know that a lot of these facilities, some of these companies, have had previous human rights violations. During the previous round of, like this progressive dehumanization and de-rightsification, shall we say, of immigrant populations, like this has been the failing of the democratic party, in which they just kind of pushed things along, they pushed the Overton window around around immigration. You know, to the right, there are things that could have been done to make it possible for people who were married to United States citizens get citizenship.
Speaker 3:Erica, I have to jump in because the guy just showed up in the lobby. Should I let him in?
Speaker 1:Sure, why not? Let's go ahead and do this.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh, it's hysterical. This is going to be.
Speaker 1:this is going to be a very amazing it really is.
Speaker 3:Hello, hello how are?
Speaker 2:you hi, I am so sorry. I just want to apologize to you both. I just I I misread the time and I was looking through my past messages. I am so sorry that's right.
Speaker 1:So we're actually actively recording.
Speaker 3:We are we're recording right now. We're actually actively recording.
Speaker 1:We are recording right now.
Speaker 3:This episode is hysterical because we're like all over the place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're covering a lot of different topics, so just to orient you as far as where we have our audiences currently, the journey that our audience has been taking, we've been talking about closure of health care systems in Rhode Island, a anti-union response of a health care system to nurses striking due to poor conditions, and then we shifted also a little bit over to Matt.
Speaker 3:I don't want to like. You want to continue the next one? Yeah, there was a. I teach part time and there was an incident recently where it sounded like there was active gunfire while I was teaching a class and I had to deal with that on a on and it was very unnerving. So we talked about that and then we had shifted into talking about the detention center, aka concentration camps, going on right now, and we were right on that topic when you popped in.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to give you an opportunity to say like, if you want to say that, or very rapid bouncing around of different topics, is there anything about those kinds of things that you would like to say anything about?
Speaker 3:And actually wait. Hang on. Is it John or Hannah?
Speaker 2:Because oh, so I guess let me just say a short introduction. So, hi everybody, my name is Hannah and it translates to John. You guys can just call me John here on this, on this podcast, but I just wanted to just clarify that, and I just want to again first like apologize to you both. That was incredibly rude of me and I acknowledge that I misread the time. So it happens. Yeah, I just want to apologize to you both time. So it happens. Yeah, I just want to apologize to you both and in terms of any other comments that I have, I mean, in a summary, I've just been trying to stay active with what's going on across the world.
Speaker 2:There's a few political analysts and journalists that I've been reading about, but, yeah, I mean the recent big, big, beautiful bill that was passed and the outcome, or the long-term outcomes as of now are, are at forms, the girl task and, um, in my opinion, uh, I I just really think that we are at a very low point, but I do. I do see that it's going to get better, though, just because I think that this was bound to happen when we would hit this very bottom pit. So I guess that's a summary of how I'm feeling. I know I don't have as much knowledge in the healthcare area, but I know that with cuts to Medicaid for millions of Americans, it's disgusting. So all I can do is just try to empathize. All I can do is try to be able to listen and ask questions to people and keep learning and contribute to people that are in need. So that's my personal sentiment and I'm still learning, so I'm sure I can learn more from you guys on this topic.
Speaker 3:And the one question I have is because I want to call you what you prefer to be called. Do you prefer to be called Hannah or do you prefer to be called John?
Speaker 2:You guys can call me John.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, I just wanted to check with you because that's important, obviously. So originally I was going to have you come on the show because you are Palestinian American and I wanted you to talk about your coming out process because you, at least from what I can see, if you were a TikTok, you identify as gay and the only problem is I have a hard stop at 1210. So I don't know if we should have you back on to talk about that later, because I don't want you to be rushed. We should have you back on to talk about that later because I don't want you to be rushed. So we can just pick up with what we were talking about now. If you want to talk more about because you also have long-term plans to run for office, correct? Yes, so I don't know if you want to talk about that a little bit and then we'll have you back on the show later on.
Speaker 2:Um sure, yeah, I can share a little bit more about that. So I actually this was like pretty recent in terms of like what inspired me to run long term, and in my mind I so a little background. I have been doing a lot of self work in and out of therapy for several years and I would say that one thing that I have personally learned that, in my opinion, is common with a lot of people in America and even around the world, is, I think we have a very fearful-minded headspace. Instead of having a healthy range of our emotions that help us be able to make decisions, we let fear overtake a lot of our decision-making process and our thoughts, and I used to be like that, and I think that a lot, of a lot of people have that sort of headspace. They're feeling desensitized, they're feeling very anxious as anxiety and depression rates are skyrocketing, especially with younger generations.
Speaker 3:And which, John, if I can add that in my opinion that is by design. That's actually why I started this podcast, is because we are conditioned to live that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I personally think that it is atrocious that this is how we're teaching future generations to live is instead, actually, instead of live, you're just, they're just trying to survive. You know it's all about if you're lucky enough to get a job, if you're lucky enough to have a good form of healthcare, if you're lucky enough to get your tuition wavered, or if you're lucky enough, even despite working really hard, you're going to get scholarships through collegesed, or if you're lucky enough, even despite working really hard, you're going to get scholarships through colleges, etc. So I don't think that's fair at all to have the younger generations live a life that prior generations especially during the 50s, 60s, 70s with the boomers and Gen X are have been able to live. But like, where I'm trying to go back with this idea of a fearful foundation is fear had held me back a lot in my life and I can share that in a future podcast with you guys, with my coming out experience, and that was probably the start for me of retraining my mind or my brain, to not have to make decisions in a very anxiety inducing headspace, anxiety-inducing headspace, and I tell people anxiety is an effect or a result of fear. That is not actually, that may not be realistic In terms of why I want to go into office and how I've been bouncing around between prior topics. I'm now at a headspace where I'm continuing to learn on how to regulate my emotions and feelings in and out of therapy.
Speaker 2:The one thing I've been learning is with coming out, with being an atheist or non-religious and growing up in a very religious household, with, you know, going to college and becoming a better critical thinker through like what I majored in and how I apply that in my personal life, with self-learning and doing other things, and then watching the political landscape, like Zoran Mamdani winning the democratic primary race, and even just being able to just consider what exactly I'm doing in my personal life, like donating to those in Gaza and actively talking to people all across the world, like those in Ukraine, those in Sudan.
Speaker 2:So it made me realize that these qualities of empathy, curiosity, compassion, altruism it signaled to me. Okay, I feel this desire in me that I want to help out the American people and recognizing again that we're at the bottom point right now in terms of where our country is at. You know, we're under a dictatorship, in my mind, or an authoritarian government. Who has who? Our president has hit the 14 points of fascism, to my understanding. So you know it made me realize if I am possessing these qualities and I want to my understanding. So you know it made me realize if I am possessing these qualities and I want to help out more people, especially in this country, then I think having a younger face that actually wants to help people out can make people feel less desensitized and have more optimism, and I want to share my optimism with them and have more optimism, and I want to share my optimism with them.
Speaker 3:I love everything you said and, as both as an educator and a therapist, I I I'm very happy that you do both therapy and we're talking about college. I think that's fantastic, and you brought up so many great points. One of your tick tocks, because I watched, obviously, a lot of your tech talks. That's how I found you. Um, you had talked about getting all getting people out of office, who were also problematic too, because, although I can't stand Trump and I, he is. He is a symptom of the of a bigger problem, right, we have so much corruption and Eric and I were just. I was quoting this book. I don't know if you've read it Genocide, bad.
Speaker 2:I've heard of it, but I'm not.
Speaker 3:It's. I just started reading it. I would highly recommend it. But the author talks about the kind of illusion of the two party system. Reading it, I would highly recommend it. But the author talks about the kind of illusion of the two party system. And they are. They're just all corrupt, right, like, I think, anybody who's taking money from a foreign country and has a foreign country's interest before the United States should be, I don't know, imprisoned. That's my opinion, but it's, it's never going to happen because at least not right now, because it's so embedded and even in in my neck of the woods, our, our senators, our congressmen they've been in office for decades can't and nobody can get them out yeah, I a few comments to that.
Speaker 2:I believe, at this moment, the median age of our congress. Do you guys want to take a guess what it is? The median age 65. My close, how about yourself, erica?
Speaker 1:I'm going to go ahead and say 68.
Speaker 2:It's actually 63. Wow, but yeah, very yeah, that the median age of our Congress is 63. And the American dream, or this ideological view of you you get a job, or you go to high school, you get your diploma, you get a. You go to college, you graduate, you get a job, you eventually own a home, and back, I think, in the 70s and 80s you could correct me if I'm wrong, matthew and Erica you would have an income that was, I believe, a third of the house that you would eventually pay and buy off as your own asset. But these were parts of what comprised of the American dream and, in my opinion, if we're having people run this country that are very close to retirement age which is, in essence, a huge like endpoint for the American dream is you would eventually retire, like what? 60, 65 years old, and they're still leaving this country then in my mind, they're pretty much going against what the whole essence or the whole idea is with the end goal of the American dream, like why do you want to continue to be in this position of power, why do you want to continue to lead this country?
Speaker 2:And I think a big factor with these generations that are still in power is they are. They're not really empathetic. They don't really understand, like, what goes on in the headspace of, let's say, say, a single mom who was working as a bank teller and has to pay off her. Let's say she can't afford a home, like her monthly rent or child care or uh, what she has to do to just pay for even the basic necessities, like uh for food and uh for health care insurance and it. Perhaps she has a car, like she has car insurance or a car mortgage. I think katie porter did a fantastic job at being able to call jamie diamond out on his bs and in a court case and he was just completely aesthetic. He just kept on responding to a very similar situation like this. He said I don't know, I have to think about that I might be wrong of this, but wasn't katie porter also?
Speaker 3:because I remember following her on tick tock and really liked her. But then wasn't she also kind of a little shady too? Wasn't she talking about not taking any money from any sort of institutions? And she was also taking a lot of money too.
Speaker 2:I'm not entirely sure about that, but perhaps that's another question for me to think about is you know what sort of donations has she taken? And I know the Federal Elections Commission's website, or the FECP, I believe, showcases and publicizes donations that individuals that are running for Senate or for the House of Representatives would be taking, and it's in a tabular data, tabular structure like. The data is shown like one record and every record represents a certain amount of money that that candidate running for like in this case, legislative branch, would be taking from each of the um, from each of like, let's say, the political action committees or so, um. So yeah, I would. I actually am interested in how to look into the fbc uh website and just be like, what sort of committees or packs perhaps that katie porter is taking donations from?
Speaker 3:but I, I do that website track a pack, so I'm gonna I'm gonna have to look it up because I remember liking her and then I remember this was a while ago thinking she was a hypocrite because it was like that other. There was another guy, I can't remember his name. He was on TikTok. He was using the platform to like run, get a lot of support and he was talking about how much he was reaching out to people on TikTok, but then he was in support of the TikTok ban. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2:I can't remember his name. I'm not entirely sure um I I honestly had started using TikTok more frequently in the past couple of several months.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I'm not too sure about that.
Speaker 1:What is starting to happen as far as people who are starting to move towards running for office that are like young?
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely, as you commented, it's so important because we need to be planning for the future and it seems like there is this very, very, very strong pattern of the older generation who has been stuck in leadership how should I say or clung to leadership, as far as their disconnection from these issues that are top of mind.
Speaker 1:For people who are like I'm planning on being on the planet for another you know 50, 60 years, not like I'm only going to be on this planet for another, you know 10 to 30 years it's definitely, as Matt was saying, it's very encouraging as far as for us, like for our roles, I find it the most powerful thing and the most encouraging thing for my existence to continue to support youth in their stepping into leadership. So how does that feel for you at this point in time? As far as like where because there's politics is a whole different situation, right? Political actors, political operatives that play roles in shaping public opinion, shaping mass communications I know that for me, learning about those kinds of things are a little bit intimidating and I'm just curious how are you managing or how are you feeling about, you know, how should I say like coming across this different world or parallel world that exists, that has so much of an impact on day-to-day people?
Speaker 2:So just to understand your question, dr Erica, I believe you're asking how do I and other, perhaps younger individuals take in so much of what is going on across the world, especially with the political landscape? Is that what you're asking?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like the mechanisms of politics, right, because as the, as a power structure, as a, as a process structure, it's like very different from the rest of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that I think again that's the first word that comes to my mind is pessimistic for a lot of younger people and in terms of my personal thoughts, the reason why I could feel pessimistic a lot about the how, the mechanisms of the political landscape, and then also the the reality of how. It is so different from how a lot of younger people feel in their day-to-day life is money Like. That's the biggest factor for me when it comes to being able to try to better understand the political landscape. Many people just associate being in Congress or, you know, being like president or somebody that is in our government. They associate it with not just power, but people associate power to money and you know, for example, if you are, you know, somebody in your 40s or 50s or 60s, then, assuming that you have been able to accumulate more money and saved it and invested in your life, it's going to be much easier for you to be able to run a campaign so that way you can promote your message, and to be able to travel across the country, give talks like if you're looking like, in this case, for somebody who's running for presidency, but if you're somebody who is looking to run for, let's say your district and you want to win a seat in the house of representatives, then it's going to require a lot of money to be able to promote yourself and your message besides actively doing it on social media, because there's going to be a lot of people who aren't as active politically. But I think that where a lot of younger people maybe are not understanding of this which I acknowledge, because a lot of younger people tend to not get involved in politics until maybe in their mid-20s, I'd say just because they don't have a full-time job, they don't understand how it affects everyday costs or monthly costs like having a home or paying off student debt, et cetera.
Speaker 2:The most difficult thing is being able to like people locally that don't have enough money, that want to get into politics, and I think that's going to be a big challenge for me because you know I don't have major connections out there, like Andrew Cuomo, for example, who can be able to talk to, like DoorDash and get, like his major campaign donation of a million dollars from them when he's running when he was running for and, I believe, still is running for, new York City mayor.
Speaker 2:So for people that are around my age or so or younger people that are wanting to get into politics. The question is, how can you know, how can we try to speak up more or or spread our messages when money is a big issue, when we're when we need to have money to promote ourselves and make ourselves more wellknown, besides the usage of technology? So you know, I think that that's a big like point that I've been thinking about and that's something that is challenging. But if your message spreads with a lot of people like Kat Abugazale, who's right here, locally close by to me, and she's running for the 9th District, she just exploded online because she has been speaking and preaching out to so many people that are desensitized and want a strong change in the Democratic establishment. So she's been getting a lot of campaign donations from many average Americans. So I think she's doing a fantastic job, and that's a similar campaign that I and with Zora Mamdani.
Speaker 3:Those are similar campaigns I hope I can be able to learn from and do, john, if I could ask one question, or just actually to both of you, to get what your thoughts on this are, because I think the other problem is and I forgot who said this absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I don't necessarily know if younger people are immune to that either, because we certainly have quite a few younger people who are in Congress and the Senate who are just as corrupt, and politics in itself is a corrupt institution. And when you take a healthy person and you put them in a corrupt institution, the institution doesn't generally get healthier. The healthy person becomes corrupt. And I'm just how do you, how can you prepare yourself for that and how do you prevent that from happening? Or have you thought about that? How do you prevent that from happening?
Speaker 2:Or have you thought about that? Actually, I had a conversation with my mom about this yesterday and I was telling her that, in my perspective, I don't think a lot of politicians are as self-aware. I think that they are just. I think that they are just more focused on what can benefit them to stay in power and to be able to have more money. But I also have questions at times, such as what is going on behind the scenes. You know, are there, you know, once they, you know, are there people who reach out to them like big political action committee saying, hey, you know, we want to, we'll sponsor you, we'll pay you this much, but then you have to be a talking mouthpiece and this salesperson or this person that's going to essentially make us look better and speak more positively about us, and then we'll just funnel more of our, of our campaign donations into, or our donations into, your campaign. So I think, then, it's also a part of this change or evolution, right when somebody that maybe, like that's younger or doesn't have enough money and wants to run for politics. You know, I think that if they are not as self-aware or they're not staying true to their core values and that tie into helping out so many people, then I think they're going to start to lose a part of their identity and then they're going to all of a sudden focus on changing into a more like, perhaps a greedy person, let's say. You know, like, for example.
Speaker 2:I think at the core of why we have so many like, why we have such a stark difference in wealth gap, inequality, is because these people that have become incredibly rich, like Jamie Dimon, for example, came to America and were poor, I believe, like I believe his parents were immigrants and he came with them here.
Speaker 2:But they eventually lose touch with the struggles of the average American and what they're dealing with.
Speaker 2:And I think that as you start to like in my mind and this is just theoretical again, it may be an over-generalization when people start to realize that when they're in politics, they start to gradually increase more of their money through, like these campaign donations from, like big PACs, it can eventually just exponentially boom in terms of, after some time, they're just going to get more and more and more money that they'll reinvest or that they will, that they'll keep for themselves, and then I think they start to live a much more fearful minded headspace of I don't want to lose my money I don't want to lose my investment and then they start to lose touch with many other individuals that they could have easily connected with prior to getting to that position or prior to even getting these donations.
Speaker 2:So I think, still, like, as much as we want to promote positive change, I think this is a gradual or a pretty like exponential negative change for some people that get into office, even if they're younger, because I think they're not as self-aware to recognize that, oh, these were my core values before of like kindness and representing people, and you know, I came from like a poor district or I came from a poor family or I came from a terrible environment. And then, once they start to get so much money through campaign not campaign through donations for their campaign that you know being funneled into their pockets, all of a sudden now their priorities are going to change if they're not as self-aware, and then they're going to focus on those people instead, and that can lead them to becoming more greedy, apathetic and not compassionate enough to understand the struggles of many people. So I think self-awareness is a big quality that can lead to the fate of where these people are.
Speaker 3:John, there's so much to say, we don't have enough time Because there is. You said a lot of stuff and one of the things if you look at corporations like ceos, they particularly look for people who have personality disorder, like traits, because they will have no problem going in on christmas eve and laying off half the staff. Right, because that's kind of what they do. And I wonder how much of politics ends up being the same thing, right, where you're looking for people who have these traits. That may not be so good, because I think the focus is always re -election, not helping the people. The focus is always keeping the money, not making change.
Speaker 3:And we have a great example of this in Rhode Island, where we, I think, are the first state in the country who did the Homeless Bill of Rights, which gives all of these rights to people who are homeless. And one of the things I really love and I'm being sarcastic is the performative stuff we do. Right, so we change the name of the homeless people to the unhoused, because somehow that makes it sound better. But I would imagine if you ask any person who doesn't have a house, would you rather be called unhoused or would you rather have housing, they would say please give me housing right. So, like we do this stuff Now at the same time, we have this Bill of Rights, have we have cities in the state of rhode island that are criminalizing homelessness and like taking down you know tents, but then saying like, oh well, we're going to pass a law that gives you the right to then sue and then get yeah, okay, because they're going to run out and get a lawyer.
Speaker 3:I mean it. The whole thing is like super performative, to make it sound like we're actually doing something. Why, at the same time, we have a 37% rise in homelessness in one year and we have a 60% rise in people living in their cars, but we're going to continue to pretend we're addressing it by do you know what I mean? It's like so performative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that younger generations have been expressing their awareness of that um, so I am really looking forward to our further of both this conversation. Yes, you and I, we have some immigrant activists that we're gonna have here. So, uh, dear listeners, thank you so much for this lovely journey that we've been on together. It's a little bit bit humor, so we're good. We had a um, this, this episode, is the overview episode of something, yes, coming in in the pipes for us to be talking about a little bit more thoroughly um, john, uh, I am very much looking forward to having additional time and we'll get that on the schedule and um, talking about, um, this like commitment and persistence that both exists in your experience outside of politics, the world of politics that you are going to be taking into the world of politics, as well as the other things that you are, um, that you know are focusing on, and we so appreciate your time and we so appreciate your arrival and I agree.
Speaker 3:To echo everything Erica said. I look forward to having more conversations with you, John, so I'll I'll send you a message and we can. We can come up with another time, but it was really nice meeting you and I'm glad that you're here and anything we can do to help promote that. When you decide to run, let me know. And if there's anything you want me to add on the show notes, like if you want me to put your TikTok stuff in, I can put a link to that and I'll send you a copy of the episode before we release it.
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah, and I know you said you needed to leave at 1210 Easter Standard Time.
Speaker 2:Pomp to Tomat.
Speaker 2:I just want to say one more time I profusely apologize again because I'm just trying to put myself in your shoes and I recognize that I came in later than the scheduled time and that was a misread on my end.
Speaker 2:But I just want to say I appreciate you both just letting me you know, still be able to come on and talk, and I'd love to be able to connect with you guys further and again I wish you guys the best. Um, I'll send you my tiktok and youtube channel, which my youtube channel shares a lot of stories about my dates and other experiences, and I also share some other things related to my journey doing OnlyFans as well, which I think can be a topic to discuss down the road, because you know there's a stigma of course of, like you know, onlyfans and doing professional work and things like that you know, and so I'll share that information with you. Matt and Dr Eric, I'd love to follow you on TikTok and keep in touch with you as well. Again, thank you to you both, just still to have me on and love to talk with you guys again.
Speaker 3:Thank you everybody, and thank you again for listening. This is just a reminder that no part of this podcast can be duplicated or copied without written consent from either myself or Wendy.
Speaker 1:Thank, you again.
