Freedom: A Walk with Tessie Peace

Deep in the Woods Season 3, Episode 1: Freedom

Welcome to Deep in the Woods with Andrew McEntyre, where storytelling meets the mysteries of life. Season 3 begins with a powerful episode on freedom, exploring personal and political liberties through the firsthand experiences of Tessie Peace.

Walking through Swift Cantrell Park in Kennesaw, Georgia, Tessie recounts her time living in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, a period that reshaped an entire nation overnight. She shares deeply personal insights into what happens when human rights, free speech, and womenâs rights are stripped away under an authoritarian regime. Her words serve as a stark reminder of how fragile freedom can be:

🔹 “I have seen freedom taken away, and I know how serious it is.â€

🔹 “You had to be very careful about what you said in public because they would put you in prison—or worse.â€

🔹 “Freedom isn’t just a word. It’s something we must protect.â€

Through compelling stories of Iranian culture, from the hospitality of its people to the richness of its food and Persian rugs, Tessie contrasts the beauty of a nation with the dark reality of government control, religious oppression, and the loss of personal autonomy.

This episode is a must-listen for those interested in history, global politics, human rights, and the ongoing fight for democracy. It also draws parallels to current discussions about religious influence in government, personal freedoms in the U.S., and the importance of civic engagement.

As the conversation unfolds, we ask: What does freedom mean in today’s world? How can we protect it? And are we, like the proverbial frog in boiling water, ignoring the warning signs of its erosion?

Join us on this walk as we explore these crucial questions. If you’re passionate about freedom, democracy, civil rights, and the power of storytelling, this episode will challenge you to think deeper.

🎧 Listen now and subscribe for more thought-provoking conversations on the words that define our lives.

Transcript

Welcome to Deep in the Woods

Andrew McEntyre 0:01

Welcome to Deep in the Woods with Andrew McIntyre , where one word and one walk reveals the stories that connect us all . Season 3 begins with a powerful conversation about freedom . I take a walk with Tessie Peace at Swift Control Park in Kennesaw , georgia , where she shares her unique perspective , shaped by years of living in Iran shortly after the Islamic Revolution . Through Tessie's story , we explore what freedom truly means , from Iran's rich culture , its food rugs and even its toilets to the deep impact of religious and political control . We uncover how freedom , or the lack of it , shapes lives in ways we often take for granted . Most importantly , this conversation reminds us of our power as citizens to recognize injustice and stand against it . So let's begin , let's walk and talk about freedom . We'll go ahead and get started if you want .

Tessie Peace 0:53

Okay , go ahead .

Andrew McEntyre 0:54

All right . Well , thanks for walking with me and bringing me out on this chilly February day . Yes , it is . I'm going to let you introduce yourself . You'll do a much better job than I could , tessie .

Tessie Peace 1:08

My name is Tessie Peace and I've lived in Kennesaw for the past 30-some years . I'm originally from a smaller town in northwest Georgia .

Andrew McEntyre 1:20

Cedartown , yes .

Tessie Peace 1:21

Cedartown , and I have spent about eight years in Iran under the regime that's there now , so it's been kind of a witness to history , if you will .

Andrew McEntyre 1:41

This was after the Islamic Revolution .

Tessie Peace 1:44

Yes after yes , were you there before that happened . A few , maybe a few months before it happened .

Andrew McEntyre 1:52

Well , before we jump into that , because I think that'll be a good chunk of what we talked about too , but you want to explain where we're at Swift Cantrell Park .

Tessie Peace 2:05

We're in the beautiful Swift Cantrell Park here in Kennesaw . I've been in Kennesaw long enough to remember that this was a pasture , yeah .

Andrew McEntyre 2:16

It was , but it's a beautiful park now . It is , and I know they have a skate park over here , a dog park , a place for kids to play .

Tessie Peace 2:23

It's very , very popular with the people here .

Andrew McEntyre 2:28

And then the next question I always ask and this will kind of direct the rest of our conversation is what word did you choose for us to talk about ?

Tessie Peace 2:35

Well , my word to discuss at this point in time is freedom .

Andrew McEntyre 2:41

Freedom . Okay , that's a great topic for right now .

Tessie Peace 2:46

It's very yes , it's very appropriate for the time that we're living right now . I know we have freedom in our mind always . We can always think what we want to . We can always say what we want to . We can't degrade people , we can't hurt people , we can't say things that are untrue , things that we cannot prove , things that are unfounded . It seems like that we can , and I find that to be . That goes against everything that this country was built on .

Andrew McEntyre 3:31

Let's start from the beginning , because I think from what you were saying earlier about Iran , let's start with your story . You said you grew up in northwest Georgia , in Cedartown . How did that lead you to Iran ?

Tessie Peace 3:46

Well , I met my husband my then husband in Cedartown and we just we dated and we got married and he was from Iran and he wanted to go back home and hone his skills as a civil engineer . And as soon as we got there the revolution started and that was kind of painful , scary , exciting and very interesting it was . You know , it was very interesting Because that happened in the late 70s right . Yes , okay , yes .

Andrew McEntyre 4:23

And so when that was occurring , how like ? What was it like ? Were you there long enough to know what it was like before and after ? Like the differences ?

Tessie Peace 4:31

Almost . I was there right before the revolution , and Iran was much like here . Okay , there was a lot of money in there and people lived free and not necessarily carefree lives , but I mean they lived like we do here . They had the same concerns that we have , but you know , they lived freely , freely . But after the revolution and the Islamic law came into place , at that point freedoms were lost , particularly for women , and also the freedom of speech . You had to be very careful about what you said in public , because they would put you in jail , and sometimes they would put you in jail , and sometimes they would , they would execute you , and so you had to be very careful about that . So , as far as as the freedom goes , I have seen freedom taken away and I know how how serious it is and how crushing it is for individuals to not have that .

Andrew McEntyre 5:48

Because you watched it happen .

Tessie Peace 5:50

I've seen it happen . I've also seen an economy crash just crash and that is almost insurmountable , but I've seen it happen insurmountable and it's , but but I've seen it happen .

Andrew McEntyre 6:10

Well , and for a woman in from america in iran at that time , was it different because you're american or was it pretty much across the board was like , how is it different for you versus a woman who's already in iran ?

Tessie Peace 6:19

well for me and I and this was just just my , this is just personal I never felt like it really applied to me because I had a place to go . The other women did not . I could escape , I had an out , but the other women did not . Now , you know , as far as you know , you had to wear the hijab , you had to wear long dresses and put scarves on your head and that kind of thing , and I had to do that . I had to do that . But I will say this as far as being treated well , I was treated very well in Iran . Nobody ever held it against me that I was American .

Andrew McEntyre 7:03

They treated me better than they treated their families and I cannot , I cannot , you know , complain

Season Premiere: A Walk on Freedom's Path

Andrew McEntyre 7:11

about that , because they were very good to me well , in terms of the culture of you , I'd love to know more your perspective like I don't know I mean , I've never been there , but I know a few people and I read a book recently about it like what were some of the things that you really liked about being there in terms of the culture and the people and the food ?

Tessie Peace 7:29

They're very hospitable people . They take you in your home , they take you in their homes and they treat you like you're so special . But I think that comes from the Islamic religion , because it was born out of a very harsh environment . It was in the desert , so you had to treat people nicely and you had to take care of one another , because it was life or death , and so they were very good to me .

Andrew McEntyre 8:01

Was there certain foods you really liked ?

Tessie Peace 8:03

Oh , the food has no equal . It has no equal . It is so savory and aromatic . A lot of spices oh , a lot of spices , and it's just so good . In the in the rice there is once rice in particular that they come from what ? Iran . I've never had anything like that ever in my life . It is the most delicious stuff and I don't think they export it , so you can't get it here .

Andrew McEntyre 8:40

Yeah , in that book I read , I think the main character is a true story . He came from Iran . As a young boy His mom made certain foods and then he tried to introduce them to his friends in America and they didn't like it . But he said well , they don't know what the best food in the world is .

Tessie Peace 8:57

Oh , exactly , exactly . And there is one in particular . It's called Gorderman's Hubsy . I could eat that every day .

Andrew McEntyre 9:04

Really yes , huh , one in particular . It's called golderman's hubsy .

Tessie Peace 9:09

I could eat that every day , really , yes , huh , your dog friend there , hey , how are you ? And the fruits that they had there were very , they were very flavorful , incredibly just . They were just different than the ones that we have here . And the dates they're called Horma . Oh my God , oh my God , it's just the best thing you've ever had .

Andrew McEntyre 9:34

I've also heard in that story too , and maybe you can connect to this , was they're known for . Is it rugs ?

Tessie Peace 9:40

Oh yeah , oh yeah .

Andrew McEntyre 9:43

Persian rugs .

Tessie Peace 9:44

They're called farsh and they are magnificent . Of course you have different qualities . You have very high quality , that they're made with silk or they've got silk accents , and then there's some that are just kind of coarse and wool . There's some that are just kind of coarse and wool , but they are all in my opinion , in my personal opinion , they're all works of art and they're mostly done by women and children .

Andrew McEntyre 10:14

Something about , too , like how many threads are within a certain space , yeah . Yeah , yeah , that's . I'd love to see some . I know because in the story he was talking about , when they had to export them to other countries , they had to call them Turkish rugs , because at the time there was like a boycott

Meeting Tessie Peace and Her Journey

Andrew McEntyre 10:33

on things that came from the rugs , but the really good rugs , the really good rugs are signed . Okay .

Tessie Peace 10:39

They'll put where they're from . And this is maybe you can attest to this too . It also said that they would always have an error in the rugs .

Andrew McEntyre 10:49

I don't know if you heard I don't . I don't know that , I guess because man can never be perfect and so they would always leave one error and that and I that may be true , I don't know that , but uh , but . But the rugs are just incredibly beautiful I mean , I'd love to visit and see , I love to eat different types of food . So I'm , um , I'd love to visit and see , I love to eat different types of food , so I'd love to try some different types and maybe . Hey , good morning .

Tessie Peace 11:10

How are you ? Well , I'll have to wait until y'all come over , but you know when you can eat a meal . Iranian families were always , very historically , were large . Houses were small . It had a bunch of people living in a small area , so you really didn't have much furniture . We slept on the floor and you have to fold up your sleeping mat and put it up , and then when you ate , you put a tablecloth on the floor and everybody sat on the floor . And there's one thing too Old people could get up and down out of the floor . I mean , they really could , because they had to . Yeah , you had to . You had to keep that functional , that movement , that functional movement . But everybody would put the sofrette on the floor and everybody would gather around and it was good .

Andrew McEntyre 12:12

I have one more question about Iran , because it was kind of an interesting topic in the book too . The book I keep referencing is Everything Sad is Not . True , by Daniel Nyeri . I hope I'm pronouncing that right .

Tessie Peace 12:24

I can't remember .

Andrew McEntyre 12:24

But it was the toilets , so he was trying to describe to people about the toilets that we sit on versus what they do there . So maybe you can tell me a little bit more about that .

Tessie Peace 12:35

Okay , the toilets were flush with the floor and they were plumbed and they flushed and all that for the most part , and what you do . Again , you would have to have that functional movement . You would have to be able to do a deep squat .

Andrew McEntyre 12:54

Yeah .

Tessie Peace 12:55

A deep squat and you squat over the toilet and do your business .

Andrew McEntyre 13:05

deep squat and you squat over the toilet and do your business . It was , it was , it's much better for you . Well , that's what he was saying . Is that like there's something about when sitting , like he could never get used to sitting on regular toilets . So in the story he decides he's going to the first time . He goes to a friend's house and there's like a regular toilet . The only way he knows how to do is he stands on the actual toilet seat to squat down to use the bathroom . Um , and because he was so used to having to squat before and because he said it's not good for your health to sit , and , and think , and think about it .

Tessie Peace 13:34

Think about it . Your body has yeah , can have more force to empty .

Andrew McEntyre 13:43

To get it out . What were those things that were popular ?

Tessie Peace 13:46

Squatty potty , so maybe that goes along with that . And also , they don't use paper . You wash . That's right .

Andrew McEntyre 13:59

It was a bidet right .

Tessie Peace 14:00

It was called astave actually , and you wash , you wash . It was a bidet right . It was called astabe actually , and you wash .

Andrew McEntyre 14:06

Even in public places it was like a hose or something stuck on the wall . I had to look these pictures up . I was so curious about it Because he was In kind of more modern homes .

Tessie Peace 14:18

I think they do have a lot of rich people in their own habitats , but just regular people . They would have like a hose that was attached and it was close enough to the toilet so you could use it . And in some places they have a thing called an Opti-Bathe . It's just a jug with a very long spout so you could tilt it and clean yourself and it's much better .

Andrew McEntyre 14:43

Well , yeah , you would think it's much better it's surprising to me that in our country that that's not as common , because it makes so much more sense .

Tessie Peace 14:51

Well , it's almost like my son said During COVID . They would just run on toilet paper and everything . And my son said , mom , calm down , calm down . Yeah , you're this far from the tub , you'll be fine . You can clean yourself right , yeah , and you'll be fine . I said okay . Well then , after he said that , he put it in perspective for me . But there's a lot of things that they do that you know , you know well , their culture has been around for a lot longer oh it's , I think , it's .

Tessie Peace 15:26

I think it's like 10 000 years , it's , it's long , very long so let's jump to um .

Andrew McEntyre 15:35

So you were in iran through the mid to late 80s , and and then ? What had you leave ? Because you came back to the United States . What happened there ?

Tessie Peace 15:46

Well , you just couldn't live . It was just so oppressive , not only for women , but for everybody . The economy had just tanked , it wasn't coming back and to my knowledge it still hasn't , but you know , and there were no jobs . And you know , the biggest thing in our family , my husband couldn't stand the thought of his daughter having to put all that on .

Andrew McEntyre 16:18

Oh , that's interesting . Yeah , because he was born in Emeagher . Oh , that's interesting , yeah .

Tessie Peace 16:23

Yeah , because he was born in Iran . Oh yeah , absolutely Okay , yeah .

Andrew McEntyre 16:25

And what were the reasons he came originally to the US ?

Tessie Peace 16:28

To get an education .

Andrew McEntyre 16:29

Oh , okay .

Tessie Peace 16:30

Yeah , and he did . He's an engineer and he got an education and we got married , went back there and our children were born there , and our children were born there and he just couldn't stand the thought of his child being oppressed like that which brings us back to that word freedom . Yeah , absolutely . It brings us back to the word freedom .

Andrew McEntyre 16:52

Because at that time , you guys were leaving , because the freedom was being taken away . Something as simple as forcing someone to wear certain things is a freedom that's removed .

Tessie Peace 17:02

You know , and I was not a Muslim , so logic would dictate well , if she's not a Muslim , why would she have to do that ? That's not her belief , but I had to .

Andrew McEntyre 17:19

Well , and I know we'll be jumping into this topic soon , but we in the US have the freedom of religion , which means there's well , you often hear that term separation of the church and the reason that is was because our founding fathers , when they came over there was the church of England that was basically doing the same thing putting its rules through the government , which was then oppressing people to not have freedoms , which is the pilgrims , when they came , were leaving so they could have freedom .

Andrew McEntyre 17:46

The Calvinists and all those yeah , they came , so they can believe what they wanted to believe without being told from one government . This is how you have to do it .

Tessie Peace 17:57

And also the economic issue . It was just you just couldn't make a living , you just couldn't live .

Andrew McEntyre 18:04

So because they were so isolated .

Tessie Peace 18:07

No , they were just so mismanaged From my point of view . They were just so mismanaged , okay , and they had people in power that didn't understand how to run an economy . Yeah , and that was an issue and I think it still is . I really don't know , I'm not that up on it , but I think it still is that way .

Andrew McEntyre 18:39

What did you do for work over there ?

Tessie Peace 18:41

I worked a little bit as a nurse , but you , but I stayed at home okay I have , I had my kids yeah , I mean I can , I can only imagine .

Andrew McEntyre 18:48

Again , I have very limited perspective , so it's great to hear this from you because that story really opened my eyes . But I think in that book his mom had to escape in a really kind of daring way , like some just got lucky because she was told by and I'm going to say this wrong it's , I think , translate almost like committee . It was like a committee , okay , that have came to her and they basically pulled her out of a market and told her that because she had became a Christian and she was at a secret church and so they told her if she didn't turn in the people that she was going to that church that she was going to they were going to execute her and her family and how bad .

Tessie Peace 19:31

I mean , how much worse could that be ?

Andrew McEntyre 19:33

yeah , I mean it's , it's saying so . Her choice was either to turn these people in or to escape , and her family actually came from some money so they were able to figure out a way to get out . Yeah , when you left , did it feel like an escape or did you have an ability to ?

Tessie Peace 19:52

No , we went to the airport . It was fine , yeah , so I wasn't sure .

Andrew McEntyre 19:56

I know there's some story Like she was saying that they were leaving to go in the airport and they got kind of red flagged at the security and her son , which is the main character , had actually walked away from them and walked into like the gift area , like a gift shop , ahead of security , and they started freaking out because they couldn't find him . And security let them go through to find their son and said when you find him , come back . Well , they found him and they never came back . Yeah , and so that was their only way they got out .

Tessie Peace 20:25

Well , the only thing that was kind of bad is they took anything of value that you had with you , okay , and that would be money or gold coins or anything like that .

Andrew McEntyre 20:42

And they would take those from . You . So , then you came to the United States with your family . You became a nurse when you got here , mm-hmm .

Tessie Peace 20:51

Now I finished nursing school . I had had some nursing , some schooling , before I left , but I finished up nursing and then we , um , look we , we came home , we , we live with my folks in Cedartown and I went to school in Rome and finished up my degree and um , then we moved to Cobb County and I've been living in the same area for since 1988 .

Andrew McEntyre 21:15

Have you been back to Iran ?

Tessie Peace 21:16

No .

Andrew McEntyre 21:16

Okay , um , I'd be curious to see .

Tessie Peace 21:20

No , I take that back . We did visit once . We did visit once and

Exploring Freedom: Cultural Perspectives

Tessie Peace 21:25

we kind of got stuck because you know they took our passports and that kind of thing . But we made it out Again and we didn't have to escape or anything like that . We made it out .

Andrew McEntyre 21:37

So now let's jump back . We have the story of Iran and , for people who wouldn't know , the Islamic Revolution has still continued . I mean , obviously they don't call it that now , but what occurred because of that is still .

Tessie Peace 21:51

The ramifications are still very real .

Andrew McEntyre 21:53

Yes , so you have a government that's pretty much controlled by a religious .

Tessie Peace 21:57

Mm-hmm .

Andrew McEntyre 21:59

Which many it seems like many of the Middle East people , like Taliban or many of the other ones , have similar things where you have a government that's controlled by a religious group . So from that you chose the word freedom . Do you feel like that experience in Iran guided that choice of word in terms of the way you see the world ? Absolutely , absolutely , absolutely .

Tessie Peace 22:16

In terms of the way you see the world Absolutely , absolutely , absolutely , and I see those kind of things happening now in this country and it's never good . That's never good .

Andrew McEntyre 22:33

Well , let's go a little deeper . Here's a fear of mine , and I grew up in a Christian home . I think I don't know if you've read or watched the Handmaid's Tale .

Andrew McEntyre 22:39

here's a fear of mine and I grew up in a Christian home and everybody I think I don't know if you've read or watched the Handmaid's Tale or you know you see these things that could be the possibility of a world that would go that direction . And I think in that story and you see hints of it , like here , we see like almost like a Christian nationalism where your government could eventually start to filter in things through a religious lens that would then start to take away that religious freedom for others .

Tessie Peace 23:07

Exactly .

Andrew McEntyre 23:09

And so that's my biggest fear , and what's your viewpoint or perspective on that ? Do you see that already happening in similar ways ?

Tessie Peace 23:20

I do , I do , I do , now , you know , particularly women's health issues . That's nobody you know . Those are decisions that an individual has to make either alone or with her partner . Yeah , you know and you know , and good , bad or indifferent , no matter what you think , you know . People , do you know , have that right Maybe .

Andrew McEntyre 23:52

I completely agree with you . I mean because I , just when you go to that word freedom and you start to look through that lens and you start to have a government that starts to place decisions on people's bodies and what they choose with their own children , and especially when it comes to that lens of because the I mean I'll probably get a hand slapped here because I grew up in this but I don't really care Like when it comes to the religious lens of , because the Bible says this or that kind of mindset and then it becomes a government decision , that's very scary because that's like the slippery slope .

Tessie Peace 24:28

Because how many sacred texts do we have ? We've got Torah , we've got Bible , we've got Quran , we've got I don't know whatever the Buddhist , whatever they have . You know , we've got a lot of sacred texts . We can't just disregard those .

Andrew McEntyre 24:51

Yeah , or say that this one is the one that .

Tessie Peace 24:56

That is supreme , because in everybody's heart it's not yeah .

Andrew McEntyre 24:59

I mean , as a school teacher you have to be concerned too that because you hear the stories of them saying we have to teach the Bible in school or we have to put the second man in school .

Tessie Peace 25:11

No , no , I don't you know . I'm not against teaching any religion . I'm not At home . Yeah , at home .

Andrew McEntyre 25:20

Yeah .

Tessie Peace 25:21

At home . Yeah , I don't you know as far as , in terms of morality , those kind of things should be taught at home .

Tessie Peace 25:36

Yeah , I completely agree , you know , because that's . A teacher is there in the classroom to teach read and write and arithmetic . They're not there to raise those children , they are there to educate those children . You know , but those things that you know the Bible and those kind of things have to be that , has to be done at home . Otherwise people's other people's points of view and their freedom are put aside and disregarded , and that's it's just not fair . Yeah , people's points of view and their freedom are put aside and disregarded , and it's just not fair .

Andrew McEntyre 26:02

Yeah , I completely agree . I mean because in a school setting , when you hear this word lately , that's like indoctrination . It's being used on various levels .

Tessie Peace 26:12

I want to say something here yeah , go ahead . I have a cousin , incredibly bright , incredibly bright , and she taught school for 38 years and she told me we don't have time to indoctrinate these children . That's true , we don't have time for that .

Andrew McEntyre 26:33

There's no big mission . It's not time to change kids to think a certain way . I mean , if schools and I had a recent conversation about this like if schools , the best thing that they can do is to allow people to be able to think freely , exactly , and that way they can be critical thinkers , problem solvers and get into a world that says okay , I have the toolbox available to make decisions independently , without someone telling me this is the way I have to be , and they can open that toolbox when they need to . Listen , I'm walking .

Tessie Peace 27:03

Yeah , All right oh look at him , but no , it's , you know totally . No , it's totally .

Andrew McEntyre 27:11

Yeah , it's a scary world .

Tessie Peace 27:13

It's a very scary world , a very scary world , and I don't think everybody has their own agenda , be it Christians , be it the leftists . Everybody's got their own agenda and nobody's looking at the whole picture . We are behind in education , we're behind in many areas , and nobody's worried about that . We're worried about cutting taxes , we're worried about , you know , deportation and that kind of thing , and you know , and there's so many other things that need to be fixed , and I'm so upset with the fact that they've let one man , elon Musk , come in and wreak havoc .

Andrew McEntyre 27:58

Yeah , and I think I've posted this online recently about the national parks and what gets me the most right and I was actually thinking about this this morning because you brought up elon musk here like he has like billions of dollars of government contracts for spacex , which is working eventually to get to mars , right , and building up those things and I'm not saying that I'm against like space exploration or any of that right but he comes in and immediately starts to cut programs for the poor people in the other countries , like us aid , also cutting the jobs to our national parks and so , but he's not cutting his no contracts and my thought is okay . So you don't think it's good to take care of the people and the places that are important on Earth , but you're willing to keep the money to help us get to Mars .

Tessie Peace 28:54

Yeah , and what are we going to do ? We're not Martians .

Andrew McEntyre 28:59

Yeah , it's ridiculous . I don't get that people aren't seeing . It's like there's a blindfold over people who can't see that to me , which is common sense . People who can't see that to me , which is common sense ? Like how ?

Tessie Peace 29:15

does somebody come up and just quickly strip out these things that are necessary for our country ? Yeah , we have to have an educated populace and we have to have a healthy one , and we have to do that , otherwise we are not going to make it , and that's just the end of that story . We have to feed our kids . We have to do that , otherwise we are not going to make it , and that's just the end of that story . We have to feed our kids , we have to educate them and we have to make sure that they're healthy . Now , I don't think I have . I don't think that anybody that doesn't try should be rewarded for that . I don't think that . I think everybody needs to work and the people that need help should get help . But you can't just do nothing and be rewarded for that . That's just wrong . And kids , when they go to school , ought to be fed . We are the United States of America . We can't feed our kids . I think that's just wrong .

Andrew McEntyre 30:16

Well , you have the situations like I have students who they qualify for free and reduced lunch , and then you have those who don't and you hear the stories of , especially when they get a little older , those who are kind of around that cusp where they really could , but they don't hit that .

Tessie Peace 30:34

Yeah , they don't qualify , you know .

Andrew McEntyre 30:37

And there's that stigma . I remember growing up walking through that line and , let's say , my lunch count wasn't there and the lunch lady says you don't have enough in your count , but then you have all the people around you listening .

Tessie Peace 30:51

No in your account , but then you have all the people around you listening . That's that , no , no , no .

Andrew McEntyre 30:54

Everybody goes and gets in the lunch line and they eat yeah , period , sometimes those , sometimes a school lunch is all that they have yet um and and you hear that often too it's like when we're out of school for , like , bad weather . I think our district of marietta does a really good job of finding ways to feed the kids . Or during covid they even went out and did like the bus deliveries to get food out for them .

Andrew McEntyre 31:11

Bad weather I think our district in Marietta does a really good job of finding ways to feed the kids , or during COVID they even went out and did like the bus deliveries to get food out for them . So I think people do . Some people really go above and beyond and make sure their community gets fed . But you're right , I think it's kids at school . I don't care who they are . If they get there they should be get a free meal .

Tessie Peace 31:27

Yeah , or you know a lot of these kids they need . They don't have breakfast at home , they need breakfast at school , they need it .

Andrew McEntyre 31:35

Yeah .

Tessie Peace 31:36

They need lunch and , if need be , carry something home . We can afford that .

Andrew McEntyre 31:42

Yeah .

Tessie Peace 31:43

Truthfully , we can't afford not to .

Andrew McEntyre 31:46

Yeah , it's . I feel like it's a issue of priorities , absolutely , um , because it seems like the things that they are focusing on are just petty and personal .

Andrew McEntyre 32:00

You know , there's a lot of vengeance going on yeah , it's because I may be wrong on this and again , I'm not trying to make this too political in terms of , like different groups doing whatever , but from what I could understand was that certain groups that are being targeted first or right now were what they felt were groups that have been infiltrated by Democrats or whatever by Democrats or whatever you know . So , like the USAID , which is typically gives a lot of money over to foreign countries for various reasons , like , um , they help with clinics in Africa for people who have AIDS , or they can actually they give money to help , uh , certain diseases or if there's provide clean water .

Andrew McEntyre 32:49

Yes , so all of those things that happen , and the first thing he did was they went from I think I don't know 15 000 employees , immediately cut them down to 300 , to now where the entire country of africa has 12

The Cost of Freedom: Life in Iran Before and After

Andrew McEntyre 33:03

us employees supporting it , which makes them where they're basically inept they have nothing and they had to shut down hiv clinics in africa for women who have babies who are born who had hiv .

Andrew McEntyre 33:18

And so many people would say , well , those people aren't united states citizens . Why are we worried about that ? But I think you have to look at it from a human humanities standpoint too . You know like if we can eradicate diseases globally , it's going to help everybody yeah , yeah .

Tessie Peace 33:34

Well , you know that they don't come to .

Andrew McEntyre 33:37

They don't come into the united states when they're not anywhere else you know , yeah , because I think too that was the point I heard was like if you can support some of these countries , it also helps , like with diplomacy , when things come up , like if they're like , oh well , you actually have been supporting us and helping us . So you know , here's , here's our chance to kind of talk through ways to , you know , globally connect . So I don't know , again , I'm not the one to say I can fix all the problems in the world , but it just seems like someone coming in and just taking in a what ? Literally he was in a video with a chainsaw .

Tessie Peace 34:11

And that really I was just taken aback by that . I can't believe . And he had on sunglasses indoors . What's wrong with you ? No , yeah .

Andrew McEntyre 34:25

That was very unprofessional .

Tessie Peace 34:26

Yeah , that was very unprofessional , it was very it was , it was , it was really bad .

Andrew McEntyre 34:35

Well , I mean you have a billionaire , the richest person in the world , was bad form , don't you think ? Yeah , I mean , he's bragging about how I got rid of a bunch of people's jobs who probably made government jobs , who probably make little to nothing to get by on , yeah , government jobs who probably make little to nothing to get by on . Yeah , I mean you have stories now of national park rangers who have been working there to get that dream job to be able to support , like you know , work for zion national park , and they , because they've been there for less than a year , they got a letter saying you're fired and so this , this person probably made fifty thousand dollars a year if that to go and clean the toilets at a national park or to give educational lessons , to teach schools .

Andrew McEntyre 35:19

And they just lost their job to a man who walked around with a chainsaw saying I just cut your job .

Tessie Peace 35:25

see what I did . It was just so . It was unbecoming , it was was unfitting . It was really just obnoxious to say With the sunglasses on that's what I can't , I'm not over that .

Andrew McEntyre 35:41

With the sunglasses on . I don't know .

Tessie Peace 35:44

I will say this there may have been a need to cut back on some government employees . There may have been , but not like that . Now , what's going to happen with these parks ? They are just the jewel of the United States .

Andrew McEntyre 36:08

And they were already struggling . Many places were not even opening up for parts of the year because they didn't have enough staff .

Tessie Peace 36:15

And it's all going to go downhill . I mean things are going to get run down . It's going to be bad . I think that Theodore Roosevelt would be mad at us .

Andrew McEntyre 36:30

I can , yeah , for sure . I mean , you have to protect our country's things that we already have conservation Our resources , yeah , our history . I don't know it makes me mad . I don't know Part of it , though . I don't know if you feel the same way . You get mad and you don't know what to do about it . Like you feel powerless in these situations .

Tessie Peace 36:53

Yeah , because in some ways we are , in some ways we are . But you know , I think our real power is at the ballot box , or it used to be . They may be messing with that now , I don't know , but but that's our real power and our only power yeah , I mean I've seen a lot of videos recently of people going like town halls .

Andrew McEntyre 37:23

I saw one yesterday of a guy who's from georgia I guess he's a House of Representatives member up near Roswell .

Tessie Peace 37:31

Oh , my sassy southern sister got him told I loved it .

Andrew McEntyre 37:37

Yeah , like the whole crowd was like no , this is not okay , and they made it clear . And he was , you know , he was really uncomfortable .

Tessie Peace 37:45

Well , he should have been . Yeah , he should have been .

Andrew McEntyre 37:47

Because the question they kept asking him is because he was saying at times that he didn't agree with a lot of things . They were like , well , what are you going to do about it ? And he didn't seem to have an answer to that .

Tessie Peace 37:54

Well , they don't . He's going to wait until they're going to wait until it's too late and then , but no that , you know , those people in Roswell are educated . They , those people in Roswell , are educated . They have money and they know what they're doing . Most of them are very successful

Empowering Citizenship: Recognizing Injustice

Tessie Peace 38:17

people , and she let him have it . She let him have it .

Andrew McEntyre 38:22

I mean it was good to see that somebody was actually standing up and saying something eloquent , so precise , yeah , and so sassy .

Tessie Peace 38:33

I just loved it .

Andrew McEntyre 38:34

And I think you're right you mentioned a minute ago there's not . I don't think there's anything wrong with , like looking at things and saying , are we overspending or is there areas that we can cut things out ? I don't think there's nothing wrong with that ? I think it's how it's handled and the way it is being presented but you just cannot wholesale kill a whole department .

Andrew McEntyre 38:53

Yeah , you can't do that well , because and recently I thought about um I was speaking to a friend of mine about he's a into learning about daoism , which is like an eastern philosophy , and it talks about how really we don't , when you're trying to change things really fast , the consequences of it yeah right , and one example we were talking about was like a lot of times , if you throw a pebble into a pond , you see the ripple effect of what occurs oh yeah and sometimes you realize oh wait , that wasn't , that didn't turn out the way we wanted it , and it goes on and on , and then the point he was making was that the way that we often try to fix it is to throw more rocks and make more , and it causes more issues .

Tessie Peace 39:38

This is what I think is happening . Of course , this is just my personal opinion . He throws everything into chaos , everything into chaos , everything into chaos , because this is like 24 hours a day where he's fighting his what is it ?

Andrew McEntyre 39:57

Executive orders .

Tessie Peace 40:00

Well , everybody's stirred up and everybody in Washington's running around like a chicken with its head cut off . They got their hands in the coffer . They're not fooling me .

Andrew McEntyre 40:09

Yeah , yeah , I think you're right , I think it's . The method is let's throw everything at once as fast as we can , and keep everything in a mess .

Tessie Peace 40:19

Yeah , you know I'm not saying that everything wasn't a mess , but you can't fix it like that . There has to be some thought put into it . There has to be some thought put into it . There has to be some real you know . Everything has to be taken care of as properly , with thought and going by the rules and going by the rule of the law .

Andrew McEntyre 40:44

Well , because if you don't do it like that , you have to , and it's not like you rip the band-aid off situation that you can do with it when it comes to this type of thing . Because in my old job I used to work in , um , almost kind of a leadership position , but we would often get to a point of the year where we'd have to decide for the next year , like staffing , right , yeah , and sometimes that required us to move people from one school to the next or so forth . And when you get up from that perspective and you're looking at names on paper and buildings and you're just shuffling people around , yeah , you think , oh , this makes sense here , this makes sense here , let's do this . And we did that one year and I was new to this role and what I learned was that these are real people . Yeah , these are real people that you're into the names that you're shifting around . And one situation I remember was we moved a group , the whole classroom , to a different building .

Andrew McEntyre 41:38

And you may think , okay , well , that's what's the big deal ? Well , there's a student who had a dedicated nurse that she's had over 10 years and that other nurse was not able to move . And then , all of a sudden you have this one student who's now losing that support they had . So that's an isolated incident , but it affected that person's life . It affected that family's life , that student , and so it was a ripple effect of one decision that when you're sitting up in a meeting room and you're moving people around , you don't realize Exactly people around you don't realize exactly . So when you make decisions like this from a big standpoint , you I don't think they're thinking of the individual impacts it has on people's lives , or I'm hoping that I would say you would hope that you said that they would care , but I almost feel like they don't they don't not at all .

Tessie Peace 42:25

They are . They are , in my opinion , the president and Elon Musk only see dollar signs . They don't see anything else . And there's , like I said , there's a time and place for that , because you know it matters , yeah , but what matters most is , you know our people and they have to be taken care of and hopefully live as happy a life as they can .

Andrew McEntyre 42:58

And we'll start to finish up . But I'd like to go back to your word one more time . I know we've kind of walked around it , but , um , we walked , we have walked around a little bit really , um , but the idea of freedom you've had , you've had the perspective of coming and seeing iran .

Andrew McEntyre 43:14

You left there and saw what that looked like yeah and you're seeing a world now like we don't we just discussed a second ago . The last question I always ask to finish things up is like what's the next step ? Like we are literally walking , but what's what do you do ? What do we do next ? And we talked about that some , but but for you personally , knowing your feelings on and your background on and the reason you brought this word freedom up , it's because I see it slipping away from us and so what do we do like ? What do you , what do you do ?

Tessie Peace 43:43

this . This is , like I said , my only real power at this point is at the ballot box and I will you know , I will always vote for , I will vote for the one that's not donald trump , and I just will , and that's just you know , and that that's , that's all I can do , and I will you know , I will try to stay steadfast in that and that's about all I can do at this point .

Andrew McEntyre 44:11

I think one thing that I've really focused on for this podcast , but also in my head lately , is stories , and I think your story also has power . Stories , and I think your story also has power like that . You have seen what could happen when a when a country starts to take away freedoms , um , and how it becomes oppressive , and I mean even the clothes you wear oh , yeah , or have no longer become a choice .

Andrew McEntyre 44:37

Yeah , and it seems like I think people are at this point maybe blind to it because it doesn't feel like we're that extreme , but I think this is like the the frog being boiled in the water slowly , very slowly . Germans were not stupid yeah and look what road they took that's true and they were not stupid people how many times have I asked myself how did that happen ? How did people let hitler come into power ?

Tessie Peace 45:10

it's amazing .

Andrew McEntyre 45:11

I mean , it's just

Reflections on Personal Responsibility

Andrew McEntyre 45:13

in , I'm not yeah , it's , it's scary it's very scary because I think , like you , I think some people are watching and seeing what seems very clear , like like a path heading that direction . There's so many that are not .

Tessie Peace 45:30

And everybody says why are you interested in history ? Because history will show us where we're going .

Andrew McEntyre 45:36

Yeah , and you would hope you would learn from it .

Tessie Peace 45:39

You'd hope you'd learn from it . And he's already said long live the king . You're not a king . How dare you .

Andrew McEntyre 45:52

It's very , very scary .

Tessie Peace 45:55

It's very scary . It's very scary , let's go this way Okay . It's very scary and I don't know what we can do to stop it . At this point I really don't .

Andrew McEntyre 46:05

I think people have the ability to share stories . I think even you , sharing yours with me today is one voice , I think . I hope people are awakened , can be awakened to the reality of what's happening and can see I mean at least go against and say like this lady did that in roswell yeah , like she was willing to stand up and say this is not right .

Andrew McEntyre 46:32

This is clearly the wrong direction we're heading in . What are you doing as about it ? As my representative and I've never once called my representative and said here , here are my concerns , but this week was the first time I've been willing to , and probably will , because I think that's what people need to start doing .

Tessie Peace 46:50

More is actually making their voice heard , and this is a sorry thing to have to say . It's bad to have to say , but these representatives , that's the only thing that they respond to . If they feel like that , they're not going to be reelected .

Andrew McEntyre 47:06

Yeah .

Tessie Peace 47:08

At that point they may listen .

Andrew McEntyre 47:12

But it has to be pretty heavy , Like you have to have a lot of voices . Oh , absolutely , I think in like the 60s and 70s , when you had those who were opposing Vietnam , who were going against Nixon . I mean , there was a really strong current of voices coming up saying this is not right .

Tessie Peace 47:32

Yeah , and we don't want to anymore .

Andrew McEntyre 47:33

Yeah , and that's what's going to have to take . That People's going to have to say this is not okay .

Tessie Peace 47:41

And it's not okay . I mean , you know it's like they come in and just gut these government agencies . But that has such ramifications for everything , for the economy , for everything . People think this economy can't fall . It can and if it keeps doing like this , it might . I pray that it does not . And I don't know what he's going to do with the Department of Education . I hope things , I would . I pray that things will get better .

Andrew McEntyre 48:20

Thank you for listening to Tessie's story . I'll leave you with a thought from Thomas Jefferson A wall of separation between church and state is essential for a free society . Freedom is more than a word . It's a responsibility , a struggle and a privilege . As this season unfolds , I'm excited to bring more powerful stories and journeys into the words that shape our lives . Thank you again for listening and I hope you'll walk again with me next time on Deep in the Woods . Thank you

Final Thoughts on Freedom and Action

Andrew McEntyre 49:52

you .