Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Hi, I'm Al Neely. I've spent most of my life asking, " Why do people behave a certain way? Why don't people understand that most everyone wants basically the same thing? Most everyone wants their fundamental need for peace of mind, nourishment, shelter and safety."
What I have learned is that because of an unwillingness to open one's mind to see that some of the people you come in contact with may have those same desires as you do. We prejudge, isolate ourselves, and can be hesitant to interact, and sometimes we can be belligerent towards one another. This is caused by learned behavior that may have repeated itself for generations in our families.
What I hope to do with this podcast is to introduce as many people with as many various cultures, backgrounds, and practices as possible. The thought is that I can help to bring different perspectives by discussing various views from my guests that are willing to talk about their personal experiences.
Hopefully we all will learn something new. We may even learn that most of us share the same desire for our fundamental needs. We may just simply try to obtain it differently.
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Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Democracy in Action: The 10-1 System and Fair Representation in Virginia Beach
What happens when a decorated Air Force pilot turns his attention to local democracy? Sean Monterio, chairperson for the Virginia Beach Democratic Party Committee and retired Air Force colonel who flew the fearsome A-10 Warthog "tank killer," brings the same precision and purpose to his fight for fair representation in Virginia Beach.
At the heart of our conversation lies the controversial 10-1 referendum - a seemingly technical issue that fundamentally shapes who has power in Virginia's largest city. Monterio breaks down why having council members who live in your neighborhood matters: "They live in your neighborhoods, they drive through your neighborhoods... and you only have one person now to call to advocate for you." This system ensures all communities - not just the wealthy or well-connected - have a voice in decisions about everything from flooding prevention to school funding.
The contrast with the proposed 7-3-1 system reveals what's truly at stake. When three at-large council members could potentially all live in the same zip code, who really gets represented? As Monterio explains, this creates winners and losers among communities, with resources flowing disproportionately to certain areas while others struggle with crumbling infrastructure.
Beyond voting systems, Monterio offers profound insights on community policing, noting that "when you know somebody by their name, you're less apt to be aggressive towards them" - a principle that applies equally to relationships between citizens and their representatives. His perspective as both a military veteran and community leader illuminates how local governance directly impacts quality of life for every resident.
Ready to understand how local democracy really works? This episode delivers practical wisdom for anyone who cares about their community's future. Subscribe now and join the conversation about fair representation!
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Hello everyone, welcome to Listen Up Podcast. Today we have Sean Montero. He is the chairperson for the Virginia Beach Democratic Party Committee, or is it party Committee Committee? Okay, sean, say hello to everyone.
Speaker 2:Hey folks, how y'all doing? Sean Montero represent the Democratic Party here in Virginia Beach, but also we're a part of the 10-1 Coalition, which I guess we'll have an opportunity to talk about a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So let's talk about your background a little bit, because I guess not all the time are you going to get a pilot to come and talk to you. So you were in the Air Force, is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Retired Air Force yes, colonel, retired colonel, Served 25 years, was able to go to the, was fortunate enough to go to the Air Force Academy, was a nominee out of Virginia, out of Centerville High School.
Speaker 1:Oh, you were born and raised in Virginia.
Speaker 2:No, I wasn't born and raised here. My dad was in the FBI but through his assignments I finished off high school for three years of high school in Centerville in Fairfax County and I was fortunate in that experience to go ahead and go to the academy.
Speaker 1:Oh, awesome, yep, that's awesome. So what type of plane did you fly?
Speaker 2:So I flew the A-10 Warthog. So that's a close air support aircraft, oh really, yeah. For those of you that haven't seen one of those, they look like a. It looks like a Hershey bar with wings with wings, or a, or really a cigar with Hershey bar wings is probably the best way to put it. But the primary you know weapon system on it is a is a 30 millimeter cannon built to go ahead and you know, kill tanks.
Speaker 1:That's why it aptly named the tank killer right, absolutely so. It was used quite a bit in the Gulf war.
Speaker 2:The Gulf war, actually through the entire global war on terror uh, which I had multiple uh deployments uh on. So, uh, our mission was to go and save the lives of the 18 yearyear-old on the ground that you know was really trying to go through it and, you know, just speaks to you know, as you grow up in that community. It just speaks to what you want to do in the future.
Speaker 1:Right, all right, I like planes. Yeah, I like them too. I happen to like that one a lot Right on. So how did you come to fly that particular aircraft?
Speaker 2:yeah, so uh went to uh um shepherd air force base uh in texas. Uh was fortunate enough to go to uh uh one of the premier uh pilot training programs. Uh called uh urinato joint jet pilot trainings, or NGEPT. Uh and uh, uh trained with uh, with uh us, obviously, and then uh multinational uh partners to go ahead and learn how to fly uh aircraft, to go and be a more cohesive as you know, the start, the stepping stone to become a more cohesive uh alliance, uh, uh going forward and uh in my drop I was fortunate enough to be selected out, to go out and and serve in the A-10 community. So that was the that was the start in 1999.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, so you're married. Yes, I am With children. Yes, I am Okay. How old are they?
Speaker 2:I have a 16 year old daughter and a an 11 year old son, so awesome.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So you're um. You're right in the middle of the teenage year.
Speaker 2:Yep, teenage years and uh, everybody's growing up and yeah, I got, I'm, I'm, I'm blessed with great kids. Okay, yeah, I mean you know a great wife as well, but, uh, you, but you know, they say kids are a reflection of you, and so I'm not saying anything about me, but if that's the truth, I couldn't be happier.
Speaker 1:Right, that's good. You probably have a really good wife, though.
Speaker 2:Absolutely the best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, that's it.
Speaker 2:Get some brownie points on recording so absolutely, my wife is is honestly the, uh, the heart, and so, as, as I think, most spouses are the heart and soul of our family, uh, she keeps me, uh, uh, grounded and uh and also provides a just great support, uh, not only to our family, but she's a uh, you know, in her own way she supports the community.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, so let's talk about the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee and the chair. What does a chairperson do? Or something like that.
Speaker 2:What does a chairperson do for a particular party? One remains within accordance with the bylaws, serves the committee in a leadership role to go and provide direction and guidance and energy to go ahead and move the party to one abide by its bylaws. And for us in the Democratic committee, the name of the game is winning uh elections with, uh, with the, the people that we nominate, uh. The other piece is to go uh get you know, make sure that democratic values are enshrined in the policies that these that are elected leaders uh provide. Um, um, I think it's to go and advocate for the community as well. Um, you know, uh writ large cause. There's plenty of Democrats here and there is a Democratic Party in Virginia Beach that you all can go ahead and join. If you need to find us, you can look us up at vbdemocratsorg and you know we have a great website that you can go ahead and engage on, especially during this election season.
Speaker 2:But I think some of the priorities, besides winning, before you can go ahead and engage on, especially during this election season, but I think some of the priorities, besides winning, before you can win, you have to go and build your membership. So that's one thing that we focused on during this administration, if you will, of the Democratic Committee. The other piece is making sure that our volunteers have something of value to do, because it's tough to go and volunteer for something and if you don't have a plan to go and be employed, you start losing volunteers because they're giving you your time, right, and everything. And then the other piece is to go ahead and start to engage the community. Let them know that there's a democratic committee out here to go ahead and break down some through through, through a human, you know, interaction, break down through some of the echo chamber that's out there, that goes ahead.
Speaker 2:You know that we've heard, you know, derisive language used against either one of the parties, right, and I think, you know, I think there's a place for for Republican, um, a sane Republican party in particular, um, because, you know, no one side, uh, uh, has everything figured out, and we know this in life, right, right.
Speaker 1:The candidates that are running now. How many are you um you? You have involved in racism supporting?
Speaker 2:So locally, um, we have eight, uh, so we have six all six House of Delegates seats, starting off in 95 with Delegate Alex Askew, house District 96. With Delegate Kelly Converse, fowler House District 97,. Michael Fagans, delegate Michael Fagans, in House District 98. We have a newcomer, cheryl Smith, but a great person who's rooted in the community and is really working her tail off to go ahead and get her name out there and make people understand what she's about and everything else. In House District 99, we have Cat Porterfield Sorry about that who's running in 99 and is doing a great job of countering her opponents and then coming up from the Eastern Shore, but the interesting piece about that that is actually a majority of her district is in Virginia Beach and that's Liz Richardson, a native of the Eastern Shore and coastal Virginia but also somebody who was displaced by this new administration in her former job with the Department of Agriculture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And then I'd like to say also we have constitutional races that are constitutional officer races. So the ones that we have candidates in this time around is Commissioner of Revenue Phil Kellum. He's been our Commissioner of Revenue for a long time, but I think the best thing about Phil is he is the one that exudes our, you know, puts. I like to go and say that there's say-do gaps. You say one thing and you do the other. There is no say-do gap with Phil Kellum and Democratic values. You know he fights for veterans. He fights for, you know, seniors. He fights for, you know, the people that are falling on hard times. To make sure that, you know, as we have to go and collect the necessary tax revenue to run our city, that they have a shot to go and have a break, to go ahead and be able to, you know, continue to live in our great city right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, we have Suzanne Richmond, who's running for the Commonwealth's attorney, and we really need to go and I don't know if that was adequately reviewed or whatnot, but I think we want to go and know that there's somebody that's going to go fight for those.
Speaker 1:So can you talk about those two shootings, cause I don't think people might not know if they're not tapped into the local news.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that I mean this is a and it's a little bit of history. I mean history in the sense of I believe it was 2021. Okay, when you know, right after right in the wake of the excuse me of the George Floyd murder, yeah, that you know there was a shooting incident by a police officer where DeShela Harris and Donovan Lynch both succumbed to gunshot wounds by the police officer. You know, the one issue at the time was there wasn't body cameras and if there was body cameras, they weren't automatically. You know now that anytime that you raise your weapon or an officer of the law raises their weapon, the body camera will turn on.
Speaker 2:So there's gray space, right, and that, honestly, I think I may not have said this, but I'm the son of an FBI agent I understand that law enforcement is necessary, it's an essential service, but law enforcement needs to go ahead and be, in my opinion, needs to be, you know, in line with the community, that it serves right, protect and serve right.
Speaker 2:It's not dominate and destroy, if you will and really, democratic endorsed officials Sabrina Wooten, aaron Rouse when he was a councilman, you know and Guy Tower led the charge to have a citizens review panel task force set up to go ahead and bring the old, you know review panel into line with the community and have it become more of a dialogue between now, where the community has an opportunity to go ahead, and dialogue with the police department, that the community now has the opportunity to go and investigate or participate in the investigation of any sort of complaints or incidents like those, and that the community has subpoena power now to go ahead.
Speaker 2:And if it's not, if they don't, you know, if the internal, if they're not satisfied with what the internal affairs department of the police office was supposed to do. So it's not supposed to be adversarial, it's honestly supposed to be collegial, because a community that's in line with its police department is going to be a safer community. I mean, and that's proven time and time again, community policing and communities that are able to advocate on their behalf for how they want to be policed and how they want to have public safety enacted in their communities are going to naturally be safer.
Speaker 1:Right, that's awesome. I definitely agree with the police and the community supporting. I think we've kind of gotten away from that over the years, absolutely. It seems like we were when you had police officers that were in the community. Things seemed to be a little bit better. I don't know that, but that's what my sisters and brothers they tell me, because they remember growing up with police, being in the community, knowing everybody and just that presence yeah, just deterred crime itself.
Speaker 2:I think one. It deters crime, but I think it deters overreaction. When you know somebody by their name, you're less apt to go ahead and be aggressive towards them, right, oh, I never thought about it like that. Yeah, absolutely. When you're out there playing basketball with the kids while you're on, as a former deputy chief, john Bell, uh, would, would talk about, you know, haven't been here since the seventies and I think Bobby Matheson, uh, a former delegate who was a police officer, b cop, would say that they would go out and play ball with the kids. They would go and you know, uh, you know, toss it around, you know, toss it around with them. One keeps the kids out of mischief to build trust. Uh, and now you're not. You don't have kids that are afraid of a police officer, right, you know what I mean. So that when something is bad that's going on, they know that this person is not going to go and overreact to and and now have a, have a bad day because they're already they're already dealing with people on their worst day.
Speaker 1:Right, right, absolutely no-transcript. I think you're part of a coalition. Can you tell us what the coalition is first, who the coalition is and what is your position?
Speaker 2:on this. The Vote yes on 10-1 Referendum. Coalition is a, which is our full name, but let's just call it, shorten it to the Vote yes on 10-1. Coalition is a multi-partisan, but really non-part multi-partisan group that is focused on a non-partisan issue voting rights right and membership in this coalition include the NAACP, includes the teachers union, includes the city workers, includes faith communities, includes the libertarians and Tea Party, includes other political parties as well, and is growing. Why? Because it's a people movement. It's a people-led movement because we're fighting for our right to vote change measure on the ballot that will change our charter with a yes vote to go ahead and lock in an already proven system of representation that provides local, fair and accountable representation for the city returning, keeping the power with the people, with we, the people the power with the people, with we, the people, and everything else like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's kind of delve into why it's called the 10-1. Why is it called the 10-1? So if you can explain that, that would be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. The 10-1 system is, first off, it's federally mandated. It's federally mandated based upon the Voting Rights Act. A court case was brought up because there was a belief that there wasn't proper representation of communities in Virginia Beach. The court case is the Holloway, and the city is in default of what they had agreed to previously. But a federal judge found that our system was against the Voting Rights Act in terms of minority representation and everything else like that, and then mandated an equal district 10-1 system. So what we have now is a and have had since 2022, and have gone through two election cycles is a system where there are 10 equal districts. There's about 450,000 people in Virginia Beach, give or take, so each one of those districts has about 45,000 people each in it. So those 10 districts are represented by one person individuals. So those 10 council members form the 10. We have 10 council members. We have 10 council members, okay.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. We have 10 council members and one mayor.
Speaker 2:And we have one mayor that's voted out large, so that's where they get the 10-1 from Correct.
Speaker 1:Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that is a more fair system than what we had previously, because previously we had an out-large system which meant that somebody from across town could vote for the person that's representing you and your district and with at-large seats, you uh a majority of those people all living in the same section of the city. So that means that, uh, you know communities uh like green run, like uh Lake Edwards, like college park, seatac, uh may not have had the representation that they needed and would have been outweighed. You know, three or four people all lived in the same. Potentially even up to five people on the city council could have all lived in the same zip code.
Speaker 1:OK, so what do you see? The value of having your council person in your district let's talk about? I hate saying, let's talk about. Let's talk about. I hate saying let's talk about. So tell me, so people can understand the value of actually having your representation within your district.
Speaker 2:Well, it's kind of like those police officers that got to know their community and made it safer. Very similarly, first and foremost, local representation means that the person that you vote for for city council must reside in your district and be voted on by the people in their district, so they know who they work for. Right, they live in your neighborhoods, they drive through your neighborhoods, they go to your shopping centers, they go to your faith you know wherever your faith practice is but your worship areas. They go to the restaurants and you can see them in the store, and you only have one person now to call to go ahead and take care of something, to go and advocate for you for something that's going on in your district.
Speaker 2:So, if you're dealing with flooding, like we did yesterday and all the chaos that that caused, with people losing power and you know unsafe driving conditions so many other things are kids you know being delayed from school. If you, if your trash needed to be picked up, you know if your school needed to be updated because oh, by the way, while the school board sets the priority of the schools that are going to be updated, the city, the city council, owns the purse strings. So so that one person represents you. Very similar, actually, not similarly. This is as American as American can be. We have a house of representatives that has one person that you vote for, you live in that district and they represent you amongst the other 435 people in there. Right, we have a house excuse me, we have a general assembly that has a house of delegates, as we just mentioned that you live in that district and that one person you vote for, that person that's in your district and they represent you.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the it's the ideal democratic system. So the let's just say it's 45,000 per district. We know it's probably varies, but let's say 45,000. Majority of the 45,000 people that voted will elect the council member to represent them in that district.
Speaker 2:Council member and school board member.
Speaker 1:And the school board member. Okay, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So that's your representation that's your direct representation in those two different, but you know collaborative bodies okay all right, yeah, all right. Now explain the seven three one I, I perish to go and explain because it kind of blows my mind of how you, of how how you, you know well, I mean as best you can.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to blow everybody's mind. So so, so, first off, seven districts. Great, you have seven equal districts. But here's the problem. So 10 districts, smaller districts, 45,000 people. Let's go ahead and do just some some rough math, uh that now you have seven districts for those 450,000 people. That's roughly 65,000 to 70,000 people per district. So do you think your voice is stronger in a 10-1 system with less people or stronger in a district with more people? You're asking me.
Speaker 1:I'm asking you Based on what I'm studying. To me it sounds like gerrymandering A little bit. Okay, All right. So I would think you would be better represented with a smaller district, correct.
Speaker 2:Then the other thing is, the other component to that 731 district is not only is the mayor, so that's the one the mayor is elected at large. All three of the other council members of the 10 council members are voted at large. So here's the problem with the at-large system and this is why it's already been proven to be illegal. It's already costing us, our city, millions of dollars to go ahead and defend in this Holloway case. Those three people can go ahead and there's no telling where all three of those people reside. So they all could be, as I said before, in the same neighborhood. They could all be in the same zip code. So that's one part of the city now who has an outweighed membership inside of our city council and I don't think that's fair. So that's not fair representation, right? Because so you could have three people living in the same district, sure, they could be neighbors, they could all be neighbors.
Speaker 1:And they're representing someone else in another part of town.
Speaker 2:They're representing, they're supposedly representing, they're saying they're representing the entire city, but if three people who all live in the same zip code, this is a big city, right? We're the largest by population, largest locality by population in the Commonwealth. We're the second largest by land mass. All right, okay. So I mean, getting from one end of the city to the other is a 45 minute drive. Do you think that they're going to go ahead? And if they're, if they're down in Pungo or maybe if they're down in, you know, charleston South, over by the border of Chesapeake, that they're going to be able to make it all the way up to the up to the North shore and shore drive and see what's going on, you know, and be able to advocate and understand what the people are struggling with in those districts? Okay, I don't think so, gotcha.
Speaker 1:So seven council people are represented. The three people would be at large, and so what you're saying is those three people could actually be in one district. They could be next door neighbors. They could be next door neighbors, okay. So your thought is where's the representation for people that are in a particular district?
Speaker 2:Yeah, where's the fair representation for people that don't live in that district and the neighborhoods that aren't represented by those three?
Speaker 1:individuals. Yeah, I don't want to ask you to if you don't know the answer to it, that's fine.
Speaker 2:Well, so, historically, when Virginia became, or Virginia Beach annexed, princess Anne County and established its charter, it had an all-at-large system, which meant that, while there were districts based upon some historical segments of the city, uh, every one of those people was voted at large. So, so somebody from across town could vote for your, could vote for who was representing them, right? Uh, you know, all the way up until you know, there were many attempts to go ahead and change it through referendums and that was stymied by, really, uh, you know, oceanfront developers and the politicians that they, that they, you know that they had put into seats in that illegal system. You know, georgia plea for better representation.
Speaker 2:Ms Latasha Holloway did that because she went and reached her, she tried calling her representative, who didn't have time for her because that representative was voted on by a majority of the other part of the city, other precincts in the city. So who are you going to be beholden to? The people that vote you in? Or, or you know, the district that you, that you wanted, who are you going to be beholden to? The people who fund your campaigns and keep you in power, if you will, or Ms Latasha Holloway, who was just trying to go and get something done for her school and for her children.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, yeah, I see. One of the things I do see when I'm driving by is I see a sign that says 10-1, say vote no because of tax. There's no representation with taxation. Explain that. I don't understand it. Well.
Speaker 2:I don't understand it either because that's not where we're at, as the vote yes on 10-1 coalition, and I don't understand it for this reason. I mean, I'm an Air Force Academy graduate, I'm a political science, you know, did well in history and other things. You know academically and I think I understand American history pretty well. I also understand American politics pretty well. And if we were to go back historically and understand the real meaning of that no taxation without representation what was going on at that time? You know, american colonists were being had no voice. They had nobody in in parliament to go ahead and represent them. And so they had, you know, they were being, uh, financially abused, they were being, uh, physically abused by the military. That's what. That's what they meant by that. That's why we, you know, started a revolution. And here we are to almost 250 years later. Any system that has, you know, some sort of representative that you've got to vote on is representation Right. But you know, kind of like Dr King said, you know, just because something's a law doesn't mean that it's right. I'm paraphrasing but, and in accordance with federal law, the 731 system is dead on arrival. It is not legal. It's legally dead on arrival. It is not legal.
Speaker 2:All right, the 10-1 system a direct, fair and local system is legal and local system is legal and it provides you ample representation to make sure that your taxes aren't too high or that you understand where those taxes are going and that those taxes, honestly, are in balance. Our taxes, our use of resources across the city is in balance. I mean, look at the oceanfront right now and that surf park. They have down there Got nice facility. I think it's going to be a generator of some economic activity.
Speaker 2:But I'm questioning the value of, you know, sitting at a surf park when I can go ahead and look out and see the ocean.
Speaker 2:You know, one street over and I'm not against surfing, I'm not against progress, I think, and development.
Speaker 2:I just think that our, you know, when I see crumbling streets, when I see flooding, you know, across the city, I want to know that we're going to get something in return for you know, the hard work, the tax dollars that we pour into the city, the economic activity that comes into here, and that it's not funneled away to the moneyed few.
Speaker 2:We don't have rec centers in certain areas that we should have rec centers. We don't have access for young children over the summer, whose parents have to go and be hardworking and work multiple jobs and not have the best childcare to go and keep them out of trouble and have a way to go and transport children to rec centers that they should technically be in proximity with. We have food deserts inside of our city because economic activity has not been focused in those areas so and responsible development has been focused in those areas. So that's what the 10-1 system is going to go ahead and make sure that we do is bring our city back into balance and maintain balance so that everyone, from the hardest working you know working family to the folks who live on the shore, have the same amount of resources.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you see with the 10-1 system, do you see that there could be representation and development? Do you think that's something that would go hand in hand, or how do you see that happen taking place?
Speaker 2:I mean, like I said, I mean I think for every if I you know the city is, is, you know, if you looked at the way the the the pie is, is is cut, it kind of works radially along the city center, right, okay.
Speaker 2:So I mean that's, that's probably the most basic way to go ahead and look at it, and so that means that districts in the western side of the city are as represented as the eastern side, same for the northern side and the southern side. You know, and you know, the one thing about Virginia Beach being such a large, you know landmass city is we are, we're not an urban, we're not just an urban area. We have a very small urban area comparative to other cities of comparable size, but we have a lot of, you know, whether it's down farmland and the Green Line and oceanfront, all the way down to Pungo and Sandbridge, right Back Bay, back Bay and everything else like that, places we want to preserve as a line and oceanfront, all the way down to to pungo and sandbridge, right back bay, yeah, back bay and everything else like that, places we want to preserve as a retreat, yeah yeah, reserves, I'm sorry yeah, exactly, we have a great uh, I'll admit, we have a great oceanfront.
Speaker 2:I mean you know the, probably one of the crown jewels of of the city in terms of uh, drawing in tourists and and economic activity. We have military uh, you know, bases, military facilities, all dotted throughout. You know we obviously see Oceania, but all dotted throughout Virginia Beach that bring in military families and everything. So we have a great amount of transients. We have a great amount of ideas and people that we ultimately would want to keep there. And then you know you have the suburbs and the older communities, if you want to call there.
Speaker 2:And then you know you have the. You have the suburbs of the of and the older communities, if you want to call them older, just because you know it's not that they're old and bad, but they're, they're they're they're deep rooted communities that are on the Western side of the city as well. And you know, if these communities are starting to fall apart because there's no investment going on there in terms of streets, in terms of infrastructure, we're failing our city, we're going to go and find ourselves in decline. If we're focused on only one aspect of the city, we're not in balance.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let me see if I understand you correctly and you feel as though the 7-1 is something that was pre-progress of where we are. I would imagine we've grown tremendously from the time that I've gotten in here. I came in here in the 80s, mid to late 80s and to go to school has grown quite a bit, so I think maybe that what you're saying is that system was representative to something prior to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, where there wasn't as much development in those particular areas, would you say.
Speaker 2:I would say that there, that there were communities, that there were winners and losers in communities, Right. And then if you go back to the reasoning for the voting rights act and everything is, there were communities that didn't have a say in what happened. And when there's communities that have representation, you know they got. You know they got developed out, you developed out.
Speaker 2:You know I understand gotcha yeah so is, and it's not just about it's working family communities, I mean, there there are.
Speaker 2:You know one thing that I know about people who are from you know that I've learned from people who are virginia, from virginia beach and I consider myself, you know now, a virginia beach, uh, native, in terms of having lived here for over 10 years, um, and, and having pride in the city and the community that that I know it can be, uh, uh, that you know they're proud of the, the. You know the, the schools that they went to. They're proud of the, uh, um, the, the, the, uh, the neighborhoods they grew up in. And you know, uh. But when one of the oldest neighborhoods in, in, in our, in our, in our city, has one of the oldest schools, kempsville High School, you know thatluent areas being, you know I mean beautiful, beautiful schools, something that children should be proud of, that parents are proud to go bring their kids to, and nothing against the great staff at Kempsville High School and the people who maintain the facility and everything else like that. But you know, capital investment for our education across the entire city needs to go and be in balance.
Speaker 1:Okay, I gotcha All right. I think I got it All right, All right. So what would you like for us to know right now? What's going on? Talk about some of the things that you would like people to know that is taking place with the democratic party and um the campaigns right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, I think front and center is voting rights. Um, voting rights are on the ballot in Virginia beach right With that 10, one referendum that's. That's, that's thing one. And voting rights is not a democratic uh party, uh, we don't own have ownership to that.
Speaker 2:Uh know, as I said, tea Party and some of the other conservative leaning folks you know, see the value in the 10-1 system In terms of you know, things that you know we're concerned with getting across the finish line. Besides getting our, you know, having a good majority so that we can one enshrine 10, one Uh, there's other ballot measures that you know are of interest, uh, uh out there, and not just ballot measures but constitutional uh measures that we think ought to be enshrined. So, uh, the right uh to uh, uh, you know, making your own personal choices, uh, for healthcare, especially for women, you know women are equal part, an equal part of our community.
Speaker 2:Like I said, say-do gap, right, you can't go and say that a woman is an equal part of our community and not allow them to go make their own healthcare choices. That's a huge say-do gap, you know, and really just some of the other economic issues. I mean, we've been hard hit. You know, I think Virginia is one of the only states that is now recording, you know, advocated for and or protected, uh, you know, by the current administration, by Jason Miyares, who could, as, as, uh, uh, attorney general, could, uh, you know, have, uh, you know, sued, sued the federal government but, you know, being a Trump lackey. Um, you know, uh, you're not going to go ahead and, uh, you're not going to get that out of them, Gotcha, and I'll tell you.
Speaker 2:You know it's tough for federal workers to go ahead and find jobs, even with the, supposed. You know, go find other jobs, Because, I mean, you set up your community, you committed to living in Virginia and the progress that it's able to make, and the good communities, the good infrastructure. You know the historical sites, the, you know our nation's capital, right, you know, right, literally up the street, and everything. It's a great place, Virginia is a great place to be, but you know we need to go and fight for the workers' rights and you know federal workers' rights and labor and, like I said, let's bring it back. And then really it's economic issues. Inflation isn't going down. We're still trying to make kitchen table choices, even with the promises that the current, current administration has has brought up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's what I think is at stake in Virginia. That's why I think that you know the Democrats have the better ideas to go ahead and end up and we'll have the will to go ahead and do that, with Abigail Spanberger, ghazala Hashmi, jay Jones being elected to our executive and having a majority in the House of Delegates.
Speaker 1:OK, well, I appreciate you coming in and explaining that to us. Yeah, so thank you If that's it.
Speaker 2:Hey, that's, that's all I got. If that's all you got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm good. Thank you once again for coming in. That's Sean Montero, and thank you for following us on Listen Up. Thank you once again for coming in. That's Sean Montero, and thank you for following us on Listen Up. Thank you very much. If you enjoyed today's episode, I'm going to ask you to click on the links below Follow, subscribe, become part of the conversation and remember, listen up.
