Office Hours - From Sidewalks to Economic Justice

Questions with teeth make for the best conversations. That’s why in the latest episode of Pittman & Friends podcast County Executive Pittman held office hours to field your questions. He responds to questions about walkability on dangerous corridors, the push and pull of growth, and how to keep people safe without sacrificing momentum. From Route 3 to school zones, we unpack why retrofitting suburban roads is hard, expensive, and urgent—and how Safe Routes to School, Safe Routes to Transit, and the Walk & Roll plan knit together a safer, saner network for getting around.

County Executive Pittman explains why the county stepped away from using local resources to do ICE’s job for them, how local policing and the courts deliver accountability, and why outsourcing justice to ICE undermines public safety. Along the way, we talk about data-driven enforcement—red light and speed cameras under Vision Zero—and invite listeners to suggest camera locations where risk is real.

Costs are rising, wages lag, and residents feel the squeeze. County Executive Pittman acknowledges those headwinds and focuses on what local government can actually move: safer streets, fair housing, better transit, strong schools, and public places that welcome everyone. We close on common values—peace, empathy, and the rule of law—because durable progress rarely follows party lines. Have thoughts, critiques, or a story from your block? Subscribe, share with a friend, and send us your questions for the next office hours. Your voice shapes the next round.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome everybody back to Pittman and Friends Podcast. This episode is what we call office hours, and folks have emailed in their questions. And so in order to make it a little bit more interactive, we have our Director of Communications, Gabby Reid. Welcome, Gabby. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Happy to tell you about what the people are saying.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

So you are the people. I am the people for today. So you've pulled a lot of things off of email. You're going to hit me with them, and I'm going to try my best. I might say pass, I might say I don't know, or I might come up with something relevant. We'll see.

Density, Traffic, And Pedestrian Safety

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Well, let's get started. We have the first question, a resident from the Crofton Gambros area. Their question is: how do you balance the desire for greater residential density with the desires for smoother commuting and pedestrian safety?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

All right. Well, coming from Crofton Gambrill's Route 3, not surprised to hear this question. You know, I always say Route 3 was built like a highway, and then they decided that it was a growth area, growth corridor, and so now we've got all kinds of businesses there, all kinds of development there where people are trying to zip in and out, crossing Route 3 is a dangerous, uh, scary activity. So folks are concerned about this. And we do have a project that we've been pushing. In fact, there have been projects for years. We finally got the State to agree to put it at the top of their list of priorities to do some things with the traffic at Route 3, but some of the choke points. But on the pedestrian side, you know, there's been talk of having a bridge, a pedestrian bridge over the top, and those are incredibly expensive, better crosswalks, but and and that is part of the project as you get a little further north. But one thing I want to say to what was her name? Or we didn't have the name on this one. No name for this one. Okay, no name for this one. Okay. Anonymous from Crofton is you say desire for greater residential density. I will say that there's not always a desire for greater residential density. I mean, that's why we do the region plans that we did, and we have different zoning categories with different density. There is a desire and a movement towards smart growth where we put development where there's infrastructure, particularly a train station and transit and things like that, and where there's so that people can live near where they shop, that reduces traffic to have people able to live, work, and play in one area rather than have to drive everywhere all the time for everything. But the safety of the pedestrians is one that I want to talk a little about because when you think about density, that's not necessarily the most unsafe pedestrian areas. A lot of the cases where folks have been run over crossing a road, it's in an area more of a suburban area where there's not good infrastructure, there's not clearly marked places, there's not lights, it happens at night sometimes, and it's it's part of the sprawl development that we've had, where we don't have sidewalks and we don't have the infrastructure. And that is the biggest challenge for this county is improving the infrastructure in places that are already built. It's easy when it's a it's a new development, a new area, and you you plan for the density up front, but when the density gradually increases and you don't keep up with the infrastructure, and probably the most challenging of those infrastructures is sidewalks and safe places to cross busy roads like Route 3. We do have a safe routes to school program where we've got 20 schools identified in the county where we're prioritizing sidewalks. We have a safe route to transit as well, where we are prioritizing sidewalks to get to transit stations. And then we have the walk and roll and rundle plan where it's ambitious and it's long-term, but it is to prioritize and think about the areas where people want to walk and they can't, or people are walking and where it's not safe. So I would say this is this is one of the big um not surprised somebody in Crofton Gambros has has identified it. It's one of the biggest challenges in our county is to sort of grow up and the areas where we have density catch up with the pedestrian infrastructure and figure out how to move the traffic. But that's why we do all these plans, and that's why we spend money, and then that's why we have impact fees in some cases for development. So there's always this battle over question, who's gonna pay for this stuff? Is it gonna be the developer when they build, or is it gonna be the residents countywide? And that we have done an impact fee study recently that is gonna be before the council about updating our impact fees so it reflects current costs.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Well, infrastructure is sorry, that was a long answer, wasn't it? No, I feel like that was great. Very, very to the point. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Well, really, really, really important.

Smart Growth And Sidewalk Funding

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Very important. And now we have a question from Monica. Her question is: why does this county have both a sheriff and a county police department? And how do their jurisdictions differ?

Sheriff Vs Police: Who Does What

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Good question. And I know it's a little bit confusing to people. In fact, I wasn't clear until I came into this job and somebody explained it to me exactly what the roles are of the sheriff and the police department. The sheriff's office was created in 1650, long, long, long time ago. And the Anorona County Police Department was founded in 1937 by order of the Maryland General Assembly. And so the police department does the things that you think of for policing, preventing crime, detecting it, and ensuring the safety and general welfare of the public by enforcing laws, protecting lives, property, and the rights of citizens. And we have not only the Internet County police, but we also have within the municipality of Annapolis, we have the Annapolis police. They have a separate police department, and they cooperate with one another. The Sheriff's Office does the whole county, and its job is to provide security to the courthouse and serve summons and arrest warrants and overseas evictions throughout the county. So it's a much smaller operation, far fewer people. And yes, there have been a few battles over the years about where the line is. One side or another was threatening to take over things that the other side was doing and trying to get in their budget, and they're competing for the same budget dollars. So there's a little bit of friction there, but generally they cooperate. And you can tell by their uniforms and their cars which is which. In the past, the Andorondo County Police Department and detention had a very good working relationship with ICE. In fact, ICE didn't exist until after 9-11, and then ICE was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security, but it was to enforce the nation's immigration laws, and nobody questioned the fact that that was a federal responsibility. Now there was a program called 287G where local police departments or sheriffs could sign on to help ICE out. And Anarundal was part of that for a while. In Anarundal, my understanding is that a county, former county executive, wanted the police department when they were out there on the streets to be checking people's immigration status as part of 287G, and that our police chief said, not under my watch. That would so distrust, especially in communities where there are folks who are undocumented, who came here and have various different kinds of status. They did it, though, in our detention center. And what that meant was that our employees were going down and being trained down in Carolinas for at our expense and then working on our dime for ICE, we realized it wasn't necessary. It really didn't do a lot to um I mean, there was there was a lot of room for mistakes. Somebody who hadn't been convicted of a crime, maybe a tail light or something, brought in and and and then um ICE would get called and deported when they hadn't committed a crime. And I'll note, when I say crime, I mean crime. I don't mean immigration violations. That's that's a civil offense in the United States of America anyway. So the part that's really misunderstood, though, is that in addition to immigration being the Federal responsibility, law enforcement is a local responsibility, and they w they cooperate with the FBI, they cooperate with state police, they cooperate across jurisdictions. But police officers are trained to handle violent crimes, all kinds of crimes. And what happens when somebody commits a crime is they get arrested and then they get detained in a detention center. And what happens when ICE gets somebody is they deport them. So the problem I see is that when the president tells people that it's only going to be the violent criminals that ICE is going after, well, that's not ICE's job. That's the local police's job. And when ICE does it, what they do is they send them across the border so that they can come back and commit crimes again. So that what happens if an immigrant, an undocumented immigrant commits a crime, what should happen is that they serve their time in the United States, and then when they have served their time, then they tend to be deported, and that's been the case for many administrations. So it's a very clear distinction. And there's such a thing as the problem of ICE interfering with the work of local law enforcement. If we want to get our criminals off the street, we don't go to ICE. We go to our local police, that's what they're trained for, and that's what they're good at. Sorry, I feel really strongly about this one because we've been lied to by the Federal Government on this, and it has been has done a huge amount of damage to people's lives that lie. Our police and other jobs. Thank you. We don't need the help of ICE.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

And with that, um, here's another follow-up question. Is county leadership prepared to refuse any and all efforts by the Federal Government to locate, build, or lease property for detention, processing, temporarily holding, or imprisoning undocumented immigrants? Please continue not to cooperate or partner with ICE operations. This is a resident.

ICE, 287(g), And Local Policing

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah. So this came up because ICE's budget got increased from about$11 billion to$85 billion, and they have, so it's an ungodly amount of money that they have to spend, and they are leasing, purchasing property to detain huge numbers of folks. In Internet County, we had an ICE detention center at the Ordnance Road Detention Center. It was a contract with ICE, and the county actually profited from that contract. We had space there. It was our lower security jail. I, when I ran and took office, intended to end that contract. I was then told by some local ministers that I should go there and talk to the detainees. I did. They begged me not to shut the place down. And the reason was because they didn't want to be sent to one of these other warehouses where they weren't going to be treated as well as an anirundal. So we made the decision to keep it open, and we talked about in our budget using the revenues from that to help the folks who were there who were going to be going to their um their hearings in Baltimore have legal representation, which is what it takes for the process to actually move more efficiently and smoothly and there be um representation. I don't know if it was that or the fact that we'd ended 287G, but this was during the first Trump administration. They shut down our immigration detention center. They shut down, they canceled the contract. Fast forward until the second Trump administration, and they have all this money, and they have been purchasing properties and where housing folks in inhumane conditions. And in a lot of cases, they have private companies that are running these things. And there's a lot of money being made by campaign donors who are in the business of running privately run detention centers. We don't have in our code any use, allowable use in any district for a privately run detention center or any other kind of detention center unless it is the government. Government, that's a role of government. You don't want Yahoos coming in making to make a profit, detaining people and creating conditions that create a public safety challenge for us. That's why you have people opposing these things all over the country in red areas and in blue areas. So when Howard County found that they had an ice detention center that had leased space and they had a permit, the county executive looked at that and they found a way to deny the permit. I've asked our inspections and permits and our plan and zoning people if there's any evidence of anybody trying to get a permit to do this here, even though it's not a, quote, allowable use in our county code. And the answer is it doesn't look like it. The one thing we can't stop, though, is the federal government, if it's on federally owned land, we can't tell them that they cannot detain people there. But as far as permitting goes, yes, we're prepared to stand in the way of that. I think it's it's a threat to our public safety to have these, especially these privately run companies, doing the kind of detention that we've seen them do in Texas and elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Thank you for the breakdown. Next, we have a question from Joe. Hey Joe. He says law enforcement already has enough to do, but how about installing more cameras on county traffic signals so vehicles that break the law will receive a fine?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Good idea.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Uh thanks, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

When I was running for office, I remember that the county had just signed a contract and was just starting to do red light cameras, and then without any real explanation, they canceled the contract and stopped doing it. We looked at both red light cameras and speed cameras and decided that as part of our Vision Zero plan, which is to reduce accidents and try to get to no fatalities in our county, that we would go ahead and contract again. And so if you go to aacounty.org slash red light cameras, that's a site where it lists the active locations of the cameras that we've got, the planned locations, and a place where you can make a suggestion for a location where you think that there's a need for it. We also have a speed camera program that we restarted and uh we started out at school zones for those, and we have a program where communities can request speed cameras to be temporarily put in their community where there's speeding and uh they'll do an assessment. It's part of the whole program of dealing with you know speed and road safety where neighborhoods can request everything from a speed bump to traffic calming devices to now, including uh the speed cameras. So we've used it as a way to engage residents. It's not a it's not a revenue, it's not designed to produce revenue, it's designed to save lives. So good suggestion and thank you.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah, thank you, Joe. And then we have this question from Karen. What long-term changes, specifically impacting the future workforce of Ana Rondo County, do you consider your most significant initiatives? And what mechanisms are in place to ensure the sustainability of these changes after your term ends?

Detention Centers And County Authority

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So good question. And I will say that especially post-COVID, when I was meeting with business people and asking them, small businesses in the county, what what can government do to make your life easier and your business get out of your way and promote and encourage what you do? And because of the labor workforce shortage post-COVID especially, a lot of the answers were about housing, affordable housing, some were about transportation, some were about education, some were about health. But they knew that, and they still know that they need a workforce that can afford to live somewhere near where they work and get to work, and be well educated, and be prepared to work. So some of what I feel is important that we've done. I will also say that workforce development is a key to a lot of this, that our workforce development folks connect businesses and people so that they can get into the jobs that will make it possible for them to live um to live in this county. But we have made it very unaffordable. The system has made it very unaffordable, the profit motive has made it unaffordable. So housing being the first we have, you know, government often it I I feel like its role is to, you know, we have a capitalist economy, and the government is putting guardrails on it and trying to make it fair and create justice and create a system where people aren't getting hurt by the profit motive in the economy. And so we passed a fair housing law to make discrimination and housing illegal. We passed a workforce housing bill to allow some additional density, which is a bonus for a developer if they do housing below a certain level. We started talking about it during COVID as our essential workers, the folks who who our economy can't do without. And so the first moderately priced dwelling unit proposal that we that didn't pass but that we proposed was the essential worker housing access bill, a version of that later passed to allow some additional density. But that I think will be as we start to get a percentage of the new units set at affordable levels, that will be helpful with that. We have got an accessory dwelling unit bill, which we're trying to jumpstart and get more people to build these, whether you call it a granny flat or a you know an additional unit on their property, helps them with their mortgage, and it provides affordable units. And then we created this affordable housing trust fund, which really it quadrupled the pipeline of affordable units being built because there were a lot that were there, and then interest rates went up, and these projects were going to cancel them out. They didn't have the the the funds to be able to pull it off. And so that trust fund, which is a one-tenth of one percent no, I'm sorry, it was a it was a small increase, I think it was one percent increase on the real estate transfer tax on properties that sell for over a million bucks. Not popular with the realtors, but has created a$10 million a year pot of money that has made it possible for us to step up and really increase the pipeline. And then we've got some good projects, some of our transit sites like Odenton and Glen Burney, Cromwell Station, that are that are moving forward. So housing, we're making progress, transportation, we've actually made all of our buses free, which made us one of the only jurisdictions in the country to have a much higher ridership, I think well over double what we had pre-COVID, and of course it declined during COVID, because we added new routes, we've invested, I think we could invest a whole lot more, we made it free, we've got a new call and ride system both in North County and South County, and we're investing in a new transit center. So work is underway. And then, of course, in education, both community college and Aronal County Public Schools, we've invested very heavily, and I think the outcomes we're starting to see, especially one of the things that excites me the most is that we've opened up our AP classes to a lot more kids and encouraged them rather than discouraged them. And while we've had so many more kids, especially black and brown kids and kids in schools that have higher levels of poverty, the farm schools got more of those kids into the AP classes, and the scores have gone up. So it helps. So I'm really, really excited about that. And that's that's about our workforce.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Lots of great things going on. We have a question next from Don. Um, this is actually one of my favorite topics, the library. Would it be possible to explain the commitment that the county has made to our library system? I'd be particularly interested in any update on the status of the new library coming to North County and Glenbury. Me too, Don.

Speed And Red Light Cameras Plan

SPEAKER_01 19:58

I knew you were a library person. A bookworm, maybe? Uh yeah. Very much so. Yeah. So yeah, we have an amazing library system. And as our as Skipold says, we have a libraries of things, not just books. The food pantries, um, you can get a gun lock. Uh, you can get a fishing pole at some of our libraries, actually, is pretty extraordinary. And a lot of information about careers and a lot of help from amazing staff. So I was thrilled to see that a union formed of our library staff and they've negotiated a contract. We've we've been able to help boost the pay. Librarians are not paid at a very high level given their education and their skills, but we've made some progress there. And I know that people love working in our library system because they're just such wonderful places. We've opened the the Michael Bush Library in Annapolis, which is really a fantastic gathering place for people. I'm there for meetings all the time. We finally opened the Rivera Beach Library, which is another beautiful, wonderful library. And then we've got one coming off Mountain Road and then the Glen Burney, new and improved on the current site. So that's we've got 40 million set aside in our budget for that. And uh there was a a meeting for residents back on November 18th, 2025, where they presented some design ideas and got input from people about what they wanted in this library. We expect it to go out for bid later this spring, and then 12 to 18 months after that, the actual design, the construction design, and then another year and a half or so to build it. So I won't be the county executive when that one gets the ribbon cutting done, but uh I may show up anyway just to see how awesome it is. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Absolutely. And I will probably show up too. Um we have a question from Michelle. This is a good one as well. Um are you and other county leaders doing to prioritize policies and investments that reflect the lived reality of working families in Anna Rundle County?

Building A Future Workforce

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Of working families. Okay. Well, uh lots and lots of ways of of answering this question. I I would say that's a good idea. And this is one we haven't talked a lot about, is engaging working families. And sometimes it's hard to engage working families because when you have community meetings, generally you get the folks who have a lot of free time on their hands, right? And to get people who are working, especially if they're working a couple jobs, maybe raising a family at the same time, it's hard to get them. So we've tried to make those meetings more accessible by having virtual as well as in-person. But we created region plans in nine regions of the county and actively worked to make sure that we had renters, we had homeowners, we had business people, we had a variety of age groups and diversity of background in those. So that is not just about what the private sector builds, it's what the public sector builds. And so we've got parks, we've got$100 million in capital projects in our parks coming through the system as we speak, partly thanks to Federal money that was post-COVID to boost the economy. But we've taken advantage of that. And the theme of that is build smarter, greener, and more equitable. And we've talked about the affordability part of that, with affordable housing, but just a more livable, livable place. And it's very clear that the math doesn't work in this county for folks, many folks who work here, even for, you know, teachers and people who work in our hospitals and a lot of the jobs. Um it's hard to make it on what it costs. One area of the county where there's some amazing organizing done is in Brooklyn Park right now. And the governor created this program called Enough, and it's an effort to end poverty, especially childhood poverty, in targeted parts of the state. And they were selected because the community organized so effectively with the help of the partnership for children, youth, and families, and trying to figure out how to invest in ways that, like this person says, that make it a livable place even for people who aren't really wealthy. We don't want gentrification where you kick out the working people and you bring in the rich folks. That happens all too often, and it seems like a success. But what about the people who got kicked out and can't afford it anymore? So it's a fascinating effort that's going on. They've actually been noticed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the folks whose job it is to manage capitalism and try to get it to invest in things that will be good for the people and for the economy. And it's been selected, Brooklyn Park has this project, as one of three in the country for a program to promote flourishing. It's a weird word used to describe what we're talking about, I think, and to show the private sector that when they invest in those communities and invest in the things that improve people's lives, they actually get a return. So a bunch of economists are working on that. And it's yet another another effort to direct the private sector to the kinds of investments that actually benefit people rather than just transfer wealth to the top of the income scale.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

We have a lot of residents who are asking about sidewalks. I know we sort of touched on that, but this is a recurring question. Is there a plan to add more sidewalks around the neighborhood? Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah, yeah. And this person, I think, is from Odenton, correct? Yes. Near Rundle Middle School, I think. Yeah, I think I saw that, talking about Holiday Street in Greenwood. I was actually out there meeting with a group of students just, I think, two weeks ago, a week or two ago. And good news to that, they want sidewalks because it's really dangerous for them to walk to school, and they're having to walk by on uh uh Higgins Drive, a place where there are parents that are lining up to pick up or drop off kids, and their school bus is trying to get through, and there's no sidewalk, and it's really dangerous. Good news is that as part of that sidewalks initiative that I mentioned earlier around schools, already been identified. It's moved slowly because of some issues with right-of-way, but we believe that they're going to be able to get groundbroken on that before the end of the year. So that's that's moving on some of the roads around there. But uh we talked about earlier how important it is in a, you know, already built-out but growing community to put in the infrastructure afterwards and it's much more expensive when it comes later because you've got these right-of-ways. And in in that case, they're actually having to move a road to get because of where the water line is, it just gets very complicated and expensive quickly, but working on it with those 20 schools that have been identified first.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

So we have here a question from another resident. They're stating that they've been a Maryland resident since 2008, that property taxes have gone up, energy costs have gone up, but the salaries are stagnant. And so their question is, where are we to get money from to afford all the basic stuff?

Libraries As Community Infrastructure

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Yeah, well, that's uh that's what's happened to the economy, I'm uh I'm afraid. I mean, you know, we had the the disparities in wealth from 1980 until now, they they say that$50 trillion has been transferred from the bottom 90 percent of earners to the top 1 percent. So uh when that money goes, it gets taken out of folks' pockets. And yeah, some of it is taxes, some of it is interest rates and energy costs, and and then salaries tend not to keep up. And that's how the wealth goes to the top. You know, if you own a big company and you you raise prices, you get you get more revenue, but you don't pay your workers more, this is what you this is what you end up with. As far as you know, property taxes, I will say that we all know that all of our property is assessed, all property is assessed by the state, and its value goes up. Feels like a tax increase, right? Because the tax rate might stay the same or even drop. But when the value goes up, then you end up paying more. Fortunately, in Anarundal County, we don't allow it to go up more than 2 percent a year. The State allows it to go up 10 percent a year. If you live in Annapolis, it can go up 10 percent a year, but for the county, only 2 percent a year. They reassess you every three years, so it could be 6 percent over that three-year period, but it slows down the process of that natural increase in costs. So the hope is that, you know, income keeps up with costs. Ain't happening, hasn't been happening, there have been some increases in in overall income, but then there are folks who get left behind, because their employer is either stingy, not making enough money, or whatever it is, whatever the career they're in is not is not increasing. So, you know, this person says, where are we supposed to get the money to afford all the basic stuff? And that is the fundamental challenge, and people are are getting angry about it. And, you know, we've been told as, you know, as voters, as as citizens of the United States, just the economy needs to grow. We need to cut taxes for the wealthiest corporations, the wealthiest people, and have the lowest taxes, and that somehow that's gonna allow them to get richer and it'll all trickle down to us. And it's been pretty clear that the opposite has been true. You know, it was during the era from FDR and the New Deal up until about 1980 when there actually was more growth in the middle class and more investment in the things that would benefit people. And so I think the answer is I can't I can't solve this one person's issue. I can't even solve the Anne-Rundal County issue or the State of Maryland issue, but in the country, there's no question that all the economists have have, most economists are saying, nah, you know, the United States stopped investing in itself. It stopped investing in the things that grow the middle class, and what we're doing is losing the middle class, and the wealth at the top has become disgusting, and the pain is being felt, and I think that's where the political frustrations come from. So we have to mobilize for change.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

And I think that's why office hours is so important. It's been great listening to resident feedback. We have one last question from Jeff. He wrote in and he asked, what can you do to help improve cross-party relations? I think this is a good one.

Policies For Working Families

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Yeah. And I will just note that in addition to being county executive, I'm chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. So you would expect a partisan answer. I do believe that political parties are a necessary way to organize democracy. You know, every democracy has them. They're organized differently in different places. But I think that it is best to talk, and I think the answer to the question is let's talk less about party and more about values. And when I say values, I mean the basic values of community, the basic values of wanting peace, peaceful lives, peaceful peaceful community, empathy versus greed. You know, I think there's not a religion on the on the globe that doesn't encourage people to be more empathetic. And justice in the rule of law, basic, basic values as opposed to partisan. And and you know, some people might say, oh, well, that's partisan to talk about justice, or partisan to talk about rule of law. But if you go back through history, yeah, maybe one party talked about it more one one decade and another party talked about it more another decade, or they talked about it in a different way. But I really believe that by talking about values and common values that we find common ground. And the reality is that over time people do shift their political alliances. They go back and forth. That's the way democracy is supposed to be. So I'm not opposed to having some competition, but it has gotten really, really, really ugly. And I think it's just we in our communities have to push back. We can't let a billionaire oligarch who who has just happens to have bought up all of the technology through which we communicate, whether it's media or social media, and try to um turn us against one another, that we have to we have to remember who we actually are and embrace one another. Beautiful. I love it. I have a lot of people. It sounds like preaching, sorry, but you asked the question, so yeah. I enjoyed this so much. Well, this is fun, and you know, I love just kind of riffing on some of these questions. And I know everybody who's listening doesn't agree with everything I say. That's that's fine. Please write in, tell me what you think, and uh or for the next office hours, tell me what you think I got wrong and we'll we'll talk about it. Um in fact, you can actually call and maybe we'll get you on the telephone next time and let you join the show. So you get the last word, Gabby.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Well, I love getting the last word. So you're listening to the Pittman and Friends podcast. If you like what you hear, please hit the subscribe button, share with a friend, and join us for the next episode.