Part 3 DISCO Discussing Women's History Month

 Part 3.  DISCO Discusses Women's History Month and 4 women that have inspired the hosts.  Rosa Parks, Katherine Johnson, Radia Perlman and Greta Thunberg. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

This is part three of Disco's podcast on Women's History Month. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Disco, a diverse and inclusive stream of conscious observations. I'm your host, Timber, and with me, as always, is my fellow host.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Selena, hi everybody. Welcome.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Hi, everybody. This is part three of our Delve into Women's History Month. Celine and I again have picked two different uh key people and influential people. And um we're both very excited about these two people. I have again some very obscure people, uh, but they're more on the tech side of things, um, and people who we may or may not be familiar with, and somebody um you know you might have with uh the history of man space flight. Um Selena, uh, can you give us an idea of who you picked today?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Um, sure. I picked some pretty common people that people know a lot about, I've knit, but uh pretty popular environmentalist who's actually still with us and still working and still doing her thing. And then um also uh um Rosa Parks. Let's just say it who it is for history, and then also Rosa Parks is but my story for Rosa Parks, just wait for it. It's Rosa Parks before the boycott, it's leading up to it, it's a little different.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

Awesome. So awesome, because you know, I only know a little bit about her, so I'm excited to to hear what you have to share about her because you know I um of course you know there's history sometimes misrepresents people too, and there's sometimes you know critic critical stories of people who speak out against others of history.

unknown 1:59

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Uh um, and so I'd really love to hear your insights.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, I'm excited to share when we get to that point. We'll go ahead. Um, your two people are?

SPEAKER_04 2:10

Oh, um Catherine Dr. Catherine Johnson. And uh excuse me, I th I don't think uh Catherine Johnson has a doctorate degree, uh, but she did um she's uh she deserves one according to you, right? Yeah, I would say she deserves one.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Um what I would I what it looked like she didn't I mean she definitely has a college education. Um but uh she's she's one of the people that's behind the the book and the movie Hidden Figures.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Uh um who uh helped with the mathematics of the NACA NACA, which um I'll get into, um, but that NACA NACA um evolved into NASA, um and which is about orbital, you know, helped figure out uh the math with orbital space flight and and this and uh further on into the space program. And then I also now Dr. Radia Perlman, who is considered to be the mother of the internet, okay. And uh now she's very, very humble. She doesn't feel like she's the mother, but she's considered to be the one of the the person and one and then one of the first people who designed the internet and that made it to what it is now and the protocols and awesome, um, and how it's almost it seemed like accidental with uh you know with the the originally it's just networking two businesses together, and two different people, two different organizations need to communicate across through a through a new network, and because they need to exchange information and how to do that effectively, and then and so she developed she developed that. Do you want to start with her?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Should we just start with her? Just go on in.

SPEAKER_04 4:17

Sure, since it since I'm already there, uh um, you know, and she um she's extremely humble. Um and she does like I said, she doesn't feel like she's a mother of the internet. And a quote that I have of her, she you know, is the the way she looked at things, she look looks at a problem you're trying to solve, and look at it a bunch of different ways you can solve it. And um and you know, and and and find that best solution. Or the best quote, best way to put it is like know what problem you're trying to solve before you are trying to solve it. So just don't don't try to fix something without actually understanding what you want to solve.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Really what you do is you have to find that problem first, and then you figure out basically how to solve it. You do it backwards. It's same with research, you do it kind of backwards, and you know, policies and all that. So it makes total sense, yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

And this was uh part of that was off a question, um it's like what you know, do I using blockchain to solve it? It says, Well, if that's the right solution to use, then yes, but you know, look at look at the problem and then look at every other way to solve it as well. Um, and um, let me see here. She has a really, really wonderful poem. And this is the describing the internet. I think that I shall never see a graph more lively than a tree. A tree whose special property is loop-free connectivity, a tree that must be sure to span so packets can reach every land. L A N. First, the mode, right? Local area network. First, the route must be selected by ID it is elected. These cost paths from root are traced, in the tree, these paths are placed. A mesh is made by folks like me, then bridges find a spanning tree. This is called algal rhyme. And she wrote this as part of her abstract for a paper she wrote on on the um uh uh communication networks.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Basically, on how it works. That's just that's awesome. I love to hear that aspect of it. Yeah, she basically wrote a poem about how the internet works and how it all comes about to do it. That's that's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

It is, and there's a really wins in there. Right? Yeah, um a good way to describe her that she's a prominent software engineer and inventor. Um she was born in 1951, and she just she didn't really think that she was gonna get into this, and she stumbled into it as well.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Um it seems to be that way for so many people.

SPEAKER_04 7:40

Right?

SPEAKER_02 7:41

I don't mean to clear them.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Um I highly recommend getting getting to know her. And I really love how she's kind of a geek in a way. And she's um has very unique insights on things and very, like I said, also very humble. Um and uh and how she was sort of asked to do something that she had no familiarity with, and the person and this is how sort of how she became into network programming. And um she was asked to do something because the person who needed her to do it had no money to pay somebody, pay it, pay it to pay a professional. And but they knew that she could figure out how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yeah, they saw more than she did or something.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Right. Uh no, I I can kind of get what she's talking about when she's talking in our interviews about networks and packs, and how there's the layers that the layers of communication. There's like two or three one, two, and three layers of of how communication works with the internet and and how it'll it'll evolve further and further and further. So I highly recommend, because you know, we only have certain amounts of time for our podcast, and to try and describe what she's doing is it would be extremely difficult and very, very time consuming.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, trying to explain also how the people like me who are just like, I just get on and use it.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

But uh, you know, um she has a family of engineers, um and uh just a fascinating intellectual, too. And um, so I'm gonna be putting links to everything, uh all all our all my source material, the videos, in her interviews, and things like that. Uh um and uh um into through through the podcast and through at the very end in the credits, too. So please take a look at these at these links. Because she deserves a lot of credit.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

She's the reason we're here. Um at least.

unknown 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

Right. And she does get and people do give her a lot of credit, but it's great to learn about these people. Yes, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yes, and how it came about. Yeah. And from one ordinary person to another ordinary person, even though they're all started out as ordinary people. We all do.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Yeah, sorry, she does have a PhD at M from MIT. Sorry, so she doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

So she is a doctor.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:47

And she's m focused on making networks resilient against malicious disruptions. Her thesis was proposed self-stabilizing algorithms that allow networks to recover from failures or attacks. So she talks about that in her in an interview, is too, is like how she got things to communicate to each other. Um, and like a lot of networks are constantly saying, Hello, are you there? Hello, are you there? And then if they can't talk correctly or respond correctly, there's there's network failures. So she also got two different communicate two different networks or computers to be able to talk to each other, even though they don't exactly share the the way you understand it, they're share the same same language.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

They're not like compatible or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

That's cool. It's be way beyond me. I don't understand any of this computer stuff. It I it's cool and wonderful that she she developed something with it. But yeah, I I I'm I feel really like great about myself that I understood land, that I got that pun in there, you know, like because that's because my extent of the computer knowledge is not that that that big, especially in depth as to how it really works. But that is awesome that it was a woman that actually went ahead and started it, and she did it with just doing a favor for somebody, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Yeah. She has a really, really funny story about trying how trying to solve a problem, and I kind of relate to this in a way, not directly, but how you try trying to solve a problem before you really understand it.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

She had a kid, her kid came up to her and she's the kid was you know, adolescent, very, very, very, very young. And the her her son was like, Mom, mom, my hand, my hand. He started crying and crying and and wouldn't tell her what's going on. So the mom she takes her kid's hand, starts kissing it. He's like, Oh, is that better, sweetie? What's what's what's wrong? What's wrong with your hand? She says, Mom, mom, I peed on it. You know, because she starts kissing him.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Lesson learned, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:13

Right. And so she's like, know the problem before you try trying to address it, because you don't know what's a very good analogy. You don't you don't know what's what what really the you know, maybe maybe you should have really understand it before you try try to start fixing because uh because you could make it worse.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah, that is a very good analogy of it. I like that.

unknown 13:38

That's good.

SPEAKER_04 13:38

And and I and I like how she thinks about things and how she learns how to think so think about things. See, when taking all all that history, everything she's she's learned, and she then starts adapting it to other things. And I've learned how to do that myself. I call it relearning to learn. After my stroke, my TBI, and overcoming a lot of my deficits, I had to learn how to really stay take take a step back to things.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah. I bet I can yeah, and and learn how how you learn again.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Like what's the best way you learn, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

So who who do you let's let's move on. Who do you have?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Up is actually Greta Ton Tunberg. Um, and Greta is she was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She is known for climate control. She became big for climate control as she started to become an activist actually at a very young age. A lot of things say like teenager, but actually she started developing um a passion for climate control uh really at the age of eight, is when she started learning about it. And then actually at the age of 11 is when it really started to affect her, and she started to get really depressed about it. Uh, she actually um at that time she became mute. She stopped talking, she talked, stopped eating, stopped talking. Um, and she was also then at that time diagnosed, and they figured out that she has autism, selective mutism, which is just you decide when you want to talk and when you don't, for selective mutism, and that is a thing that a lot of a lot of children actually have. Um, and um OCD along with it. One thing I loved, loved about her is she said that all of these things are her superpower, actually. And um, I watched a TED talk that she did on there too, and she said that she believes that people who have autism are actually the normal people, and those who do not are the ones that are a little off and odd. Because um, with autism, she's able to see things black and white and not the gray areas where a lot of people are seeing a lot of different things, especially when it comes to climate control. Because with climate control, like a lot, you know, we'll see what steps we need to make and not make, but then people hem and ha with their luxuries and their comforts versus actual survival modes. Um, she really started to talk about that. In 2018, she took a stand and skipped school and went to the parliament, uh the Sweden Parliament, and sat outside of it with a sign that said school strike for climate. Um and that is when she began her stance for climate control. That actually got media recognition, and then you know, I remember that. Yeah, tens of thousands of people started to to join her for that. It started a Friday for future strikes type of thing where they were talking about and they kept going. She's still, you know, speaking up with her climate control. She got a lot of backlash from people. Um, she a lot of people still they call her, they say that she's mentally ill, uh, that she's a very emotional child. She's very emotional and she's um dangerous. And I I heard one guy say on their quote, she was like, she's dangerous and she's causing other children to lose sleep and she just needs to go back to school. Um, I was like, wow, and just stay at school. I mean, there's a lot of people who are like a lot of anger problems because they don't like what she's the common sense that she's talking. And of course, it's the millionaires, the billionaires that need to make the change in the big dogs, and they don't like that. So of course they're gonna give backlash and make her people they want to come up with the narrative that she's crazy, she's insane, she's you know, mentally or developmentally delayed and thinks that she doesn't know as much. She's highly educated, she's a highly educated girl, she knows her stuff big time. Um, in talking with that. And I remember so she was saying too in her TED talk, which I didn't realize, that um do you know that there is mass extinct um extensions or not extensions, there there's mass extinctions happening every there's about 200 species going extinct every single day, she said.

SPEAKER_04 17:53

Is it really something like that? I've heard that.

unknown 17:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Um, within a 30 year but and that we use a hundred million barrels of oil every day in the world. Like that's how many, which is I think it's probably gonna be more than that, but daily.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

That's just daily, which is I don't even understand how how there's that much oil in the ground anymore. As far as I know, we're gonna be out of oil in a couple decades anyway, based on how fast you know that.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Like what just recently happened in Hawaii with the big floods. I was asking my mom, because you know they're doing the fracking as well, which is the core of our earth, which is gonna destroy us too as well. They just don't get it. You can't go any deeper. It's fracking, you know. Um, it's because you already took the resources off the top. But anyway, I was asking them, like, did are they sinking with the big flood that's happening? Is it from the fracking? Because you know what, you take from the center of the juice, you're stuff's gonna shift, stuff's gonna move, stuff's gonna break, like that's how it goes, and that's what's gonna happen. You know, we're gonna have these shifts, the earthquake, the tsunamis, the floods, and all of that, because we're trying to break up our whole, you know, uh, world. The whole basically the whole world as it goes, like not realize, not caring, it's all for the dollar. They don't care about their future generations, obviously. Um, and I think that those that are rich that do care about their future generations, what they decided to do was try to figure out how to get to Mars instead of fixing what is here, sadly. But needless to say, so for her, um, though, she's still fighting, she's still out there. She was actually um there is on the BBC website there, which I sent there'll be a link attached to this too, they have a whole timeline of all her life and things that she's done. She's been arrested for multiple things, um, fighting climate control as well. She's been fighting for Palestine, um, for help for the hunger for humanity. She fights for climate and humanity. Um going forward, there's been drones that have actually landed on her boats that they're out there. There's her and other environmentalists in the ocean, um, drones that they're causing to be from Israel, possibly to land to try to blow their ships up out there. They have not been successful so far, luckily. She's been a huge advocate for Cuba as well. Um, and she did have some choice words to say about our lovely president, which um on that there is a there's a video, the link for that. People can watch it too. I was kind of taken back. Sadly, that I don't have the same um uh viewpoints as them because of the the way that they stated it at the end was, yeah, those people from the far left are real crazy. And I'm like, you must be from the far right for you to comment somebody from the far left, like that. You know, nobody you you have to be far on one of the sides to say somebody's far on another side, and just to point the finger, period. Um, instead of us in the middle, we just you just say left, right, middle, whatever. But no, irregardless, because she was talking about how, because on that video she called Trump a pedophile and um how they're withholding some oil from Cuba to help them be able to survive. Of course, the podcast went back and forth, said she's saying, Don't do the oil now, send the oil to Cuba and back and forth. But it's a matter of survival and taking care of each other. It's a different sense of it, but also we do need to promote um clean using our our natural resources and not um taking from earth resources that are now that I know that sounds contraindicated, but this is what I mean. Not taking from use the resources that we have that are available to us that are reusable, that will come back, such as sunlight that happens every single day, such as our water that keeps flowing and going, you know, um, and use it in the as the motion, not to necessarily uh drain it. And if we can, you know, continue to moneterize those, we can have a better climate, but we all gotta make a change. And like she said, it has to be the rich from them and stop taking the resources that our nature in our planet actually needs to continue to survive. We need to start focusing on the ones that it can remake and it can go you know with to make ourselves stay sustainable. And I think that's her huge fight that is going on. I'm glad that she's doing it. I'm glad she's pushing. I'm impressed. I uh I love also, as you know, I have a passion for autistic people and kids and any developmental delays considering I worked with them for almost 20 years. I just I love them. They're so highly intelligent and smart and um with their different biases.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

But yeah, I really wanted to highlight her because she's doing it still and has been we we need people like her to look at the world in an abstract way and and to find solutions that aren't because it helps us find solutions that aren't always apparent because we do get myopic that we we start looking at the world that's black and white and too crit literal or critical and we're not and we become no longer open to new ideas.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Well no that's what you're saying we look at it actually gray because we hem and ha we see oh well there's this and then there's that and she's like it's black and white it is what it is if this is hurting us because we're doing this we shouldn't do that like you know then let's move forward without doing that if that is gonna cause uh internal harm like future harm forever like and it's not a matter of harm but it's a matter of stopping our survival um and instead we want to say well instead of using a gas boat let's use a diesel or something you know what I mean like we're going where we're still taking from our natural instead of going fully like using solar or um power in state in and pushing for solar and more natural stuff that isn't gonna harm our um gases and keep making the temperature of our world go up yeah um but yes so yeah and like I said keep looking for her guys everybody if you haven't heard for about her um I haven't heard anything about her for a long time so I'm gonna definitely yeah look into what she what she's been doing lately.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Yeah and she's been doing stuff just recently like she's still moving cooking and moving and shaking and I've never I mean I've never heard about her ever being violent or extreme. I would call her her her her method is very passionate. She's very passionate but she I mean but now I wouldn't call it extreme and definitely not violent.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Now let's go back to this I don't think that she's ever I've never either but they've been talking about a lot of way she talks and I think because she's like crying and the passion and all those come out of that but isn't that pretty typical for anybody who does not agree with somebody and if they are passionate about it to flip it and say that it's aggression versus passion. It's it's evil it's it's it's violent it's inciting violence versus actually like just showing the the the like you said the compassion about it and the passion that there is for it to try to make people actually understand and the importance of it and the level where if you're more nonchalant they want it's like what do you want? Do you want me to be nonchalant where it doesn't seem to be an issue that matters to me but it actually is a very strong issue that matters to all of us uh especially and I especially women and any female that says something that's aggressive per supposedly direct. So basically it's anybody that says anything that's direct that you don't like to hear that's more matter of fact and if we are crying oh my goodness then we have got to be having some emotional problems and we need to deal with it. You know they called her very emotional they said that she needed to have anger management. Actually so she showed up to one of the uh climate control summits that were in New York versus taking a plane her her father and two other men took a boat with solar panels electric from they took it across the sea from one side of the pond to the other side of the pond some from Sweden over there to to the to the New York City 15 days it took for her to do that. And um in talking and then she did have a great speech with them and just another point to prove that we don't need to have all like the gas guzzling airplanes and so forth. Well after all of that Trump did have something to say about her with it and this was his quote on there he said um Greta needs to work on her anger management problem and then go to a good old fashioned movie with her friends. Chill Greta chill like just he did not like what she was talking about whatsoever.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Which I mean we know our president if he doesn't like that's I was actually rather and his staff in admin administration doesn't act out aggressively or out of anger or vulgarity name calling or anything like that. Right right yeah yeah comparatively speaking Greta's far more professional and ethical and ethical and ethical than anybody criticizing her.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Statistics that are actually real and true scientific facts that science is real um and telling the real science not just something that somebody conjures up in their head and tries to direct somebody to get you to believe the lies or the stories or whatever solution they want to bring you to to believe um yes no I Greta Thornburg keep going keep doing it keep pushing here with your girl I love it keep fighting for the climate I have a child I have a grandchild and I would like for my grandchild to have kids as well one day and for them to keep going. So and that has to change for us to do that we gotta take a look at the climate control. Mm-hmm so yes that was Greta Thornton Thurnburg right on right on who's your next one okay this is somebody I've been really excited to talk about um since we've been doing since we started this idea for Women's History Month Catherine Johnson uh maybe make sure I got everything up here um so she's uh she did or try to analysis for Alan Shepard's 1961 mission Freedom 7 um which was America's first human spaceflight um she uh uh let me let me let me I'm gonna get uh I have a timeline of her work here um so in 1953 she joined NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA and she spent her first few years analyzing data from flight tests and investigating a plane crash caused by wake turbulence um in and so in 1957 uh she started flight research division in the wake of the Soviet satellite Sputnik she provided some of the math for the report notes on space technologies this document was a collection of lectures given by engineers who along with Catherine Johnson would make up the core of the Space Task Force NACA's NACA's first official foray into space travel the next year it became NASA um after con the Congress passed in uh NASA's Space Act of uh 1958 um and it and NACA officially turned over its operation later that same year um she co-authored in 1960 this is two years later co-authored a report determination of azimuth angle at burnout for placing a satellite over a selected earth position it was the first time a woman in in the first sorry in the flight research division had received credit as an author of a res research report um and so as I mentioned John Glenn um okay so so she they relied on her calculations um for the recovery of hit of Alan Shepherd's capsule in the North Atlantic so she planned and figured out where he was gonna land in the North Atlantic and they were able to pinpoint his location from her map wow yeah that's really good so this is this in 1961 imagine you're in this ball coming out of space and landing somewhere in the Atlantic one of the large what the second largest ocean in the world that's huge I think this my thought comes in man I'd hate to be her child even without technology she was find you she will find you even you don't need she doesn't need a GPS if she can find him in the middle of an ocean she could find her child probably anywhere so they they relied on her so much so much so you in 1962 even though NASA had started using electronic computers John Glenn one of the most prominent astronauts uh you know um needed reassurance that uh uh the IBM 790 computer was correct and regro requested that the girl did not refer this quote unquote you gotta for the those listening to this podcast that's I'm air quoting the girl he did not refer to Catherine by by name personally recheck the calculations before his first before his flight aboard friendship seven I'm gonna be honest with you him doing that statement and looking that way I kind of see him in a different light right now too so obviously it was still back then for it was the girl but she she knew more than you she was doing better than you and you couldn't even recognize her name um let alone you know and or the fact that she was the woman not the girl that was doing it as well you know um because it's funny because we know a lot of the men back then it didn't matter if they were called the boy the boy that did that instead of the man instead of a man or is it the a man. Yep yes yes yes with John Glenn but good for her for standing her ground and that was once again a time though that women still were fighting to be women and to be recognized and to be called and she was stepping up and s slaying them and letting them know we got this.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

Yeah and in 1969 her calculations proved critical for the success of the the Apollo moon landing and in eight in eighty six she continued her work at NASIP and um with the five more Apollo flights and um and uh sorry I'm having to read my screen here she calculated the first trajectories to Mars and worked for nearly 15 years on developing NASA's first space station. So and to retire I mean she continues working for with students and sp and and speaking at schools. She's today uh no she died recently um she died uh in twenty twenty oh during um yeah so she um I think I remember that I remember them talking about that when that she passed during that time frame yeah because there were in I she was 97 years old in 2015 and was awarded the presidential medal of freedom in 2015 she was 97 years old so she died at 102 yeah uh or about about 102 um she was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by Obama in at 97 years old uh in 2015 wow um it's uh so um so in 1939 I wanted to make sure I make note of this when West Virginia first decided to quietly integrate its graduate schools in 1939 West Virginia's state pre state's president Dr. John W. Davis selected her and two men to be the first black students offered spots at the state's flagship school West Virginia University so she left her teaching job and and enrolled in the graduate math program. You know so it's like she she she's one of like we were talking about the firsts. You know she was a you know uh she's one of the first women in a lot of lot of things and she broke ground on so many things and she probably still was not exactly recognized till much later by you know by name rather than like we said the girl right and and I and I'm pretty I I would imagine that that might not be so demeaning. It's like you know I want her he probably didn't know who she was you probably he probably just knew her as you knew knew knew this person.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Oh she's a woman you know so possibly um possibly you know I don't want to forgive him for anything and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna use it was right either um because like I stated you know back then that was the time frame where they were um women still weren't valued as to the level that we are and we're still not fully valued but we weren't valued at all back then um it was hard for us to get into a professional realm and she was doing amazing by not only getting into it but actually uh owning it and they needed her to make it happen.

SPEAKER_04 36:21

Right. So please I'm gonna provide a lot I'm gonna provide a few lengths and some videos for for her too so that she's really fa good interviews and things like that. Please I haven't watched her movie yet because I'm sometimes sir sort of don't always jump right into a m uh a Hollywood documentary because the Hollywood ones aren't are can be over exaggerated. Oh you should do your research and then watch the movie 100% yeah do your research and then watch the movie she's a fascinating person.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

It's an she does a lot of her math by hand it's a great movie it does it is actually pretty they do they do a well job at representing from the history that I've learned from on her that's great because she did a lot of her math and checks and computer checks by hand.

SPEAKER_04 37:20

Yeah which is really really fascinating and amazing and I'm so glad that she finally got her got recognition then um but she's getting recognition now because if it wasn't for these two people these two women um that we wouldn't have our our space flights we wouldn't have the idea the even the ability to go to Mars without Catherine Johnson. We wouldn't have the internet we wouldn't have this podcast with uh without Dr. Roddy Pearlman we wouldn't have anything we would have today without these two women right and I'm very very thankful for them uh for what they did for us.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

I am too and you know this is a great segue into mine to be honest with you because speaking of okay great we would not be able to sit here and do this podcast together if it wasn't for mine Miss Rosa Parks who actually you know because um her uh refusing to get off the bus as most people probably don't know was actually the start that sparked a huge you know the Montgomery bus boycott but also that led to actually laws being changed for segregation for anybody to be able to sit anywhere and to start and then in Montgomery so a huge place. So that's what you're seeing like without her starting that and standing the ground to be able to open the doors for the people to start actually uh accepting uh segregation we wouldn't be able to do this um so uh which is great with it but back for Rosa Park so I want to talk like don't get me wrong the boy the her refusing to get off the bus that was huge um it like I said it sparked a 381 day huge boycott which is still the longest boycott to this day in history.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

Really?

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Yes um and it also did spark huge change I mean it was over a year they had to go with the buses still had to take that because at that time 75% of the dri riders were black people and so they lost 75% of their riders for 381 days.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Well that's a that's a huge income loss so it's got I wanted to be sure that I got that I got that right that it was a boycott of of the bus system. So that's a huge impact.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 39:44

I mean they're probably it's only a nickel to take the bus then.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

But it was a huge impact considering it was 75% of all riders you know and of course the drivers it would be white people because you know they wouldn't hire you couldn't hire black people back then um to ride the bus. They could but they wouldn't well could they drive they could but they wouldn't let 'em you know no could they could they could they drive their own car I mean could I mean that there the they would the span of time before allowing people of color to buy or drive a car very few people back then especially black people had um the ability for a car had the funds even the means to right the means to have a car and then you have to find somebody who would be willing to sell it to you as well there you go too you know so there was a lot of standards of reasons why this is this is why to this day that we keep talking about the you know what I mean the um the systematic racism that happens that keeps holding everybody back and that's this you know first the suppression of people and to keep other people going. But with Rosa Park so she did spark that but before let's talk about Rosa before from the beginning. So Rosa was born um February 4th in 2013 and she actually lived till October 24th in 2005 when she was 92 years old as you were just talking about somebody for a long life she did have a great life um she actually got recognized too later on in life for all of her greatness and things that she did. But she was born her mother owned actually owned a farm which is huge because her mother her grandparents so her mother's parents were slaves. And then they with the emancipation happened and there her mother actually ended up having the ability to purchase a farm to get a farm. So at that time of her growing up she grew up on a farm that her mother owned her mother also um knew how to read and taught her and her brother how to read um growing up and then finally they were able to go to a school because going to schools back then that was a huge privilege if you were even able to especially there weren't black schools too many. There were few and far and wide between they had to have teachers and so forth. But she did go to it was a industrial school for girls and when she went there she was actually pretty surprised at that industrial school for girls because it was it was started there was uh like white teachers that actually showed respect to the black students which kind of blew her away um that was her first time ever experiencing uh kindness from a white person basically um and being treated like a human and seeing that it was not all white people that were that way it was just the specifics you know as it went forward um she so that was her first experience of knowing that humanity does live beyond color and uh then from there she did she married she got married she uh got a husband her husband was part of the NAACP she became secretary and also a member of the NAACP uh so she was part of the organizations that were still part of the civil rights movement already this is prior to everything and in August of 1955 she attended what's called the Highlander Folk School have you ever heard of that I don't think so no the Highlander Folk School was actually um started by Miles Horton and he was a he was a white man actually but he was a huge civil rights activist and push and he did a lot of things behind the scenes for it it's basically was a leadership school that they taught and she when she went there she went there um to discuss implementing of school segregation and um so Highlander School of uh Folk School is a place that people would go to that they could sit and they can sit and they come up with plans and ideas and negotiate and learn how to how to lead and how to train and how to do civil rights movements and acts and to it was basically to help change the whole world in the country. People would come from all over to there. While she was there she was actually there with Martin Luther King Jr. as well he attended that school at the same time she used it was only for a two week workshop that she went there.

unknown 43:59

Um

SPEAKER_01 44:00

And learned a lot of skills. There was a many people.

SPEAKER_04 44:03

Well, they knew each other, didn't they?

SPEAKER_01 44:05

They went there. Yep, though, they both attended that school too, yes. And they they did knowing each other from the NAACP. Like I said, she was still part of the civil rights. Um so she still was part of the movement in in actively she was being a secretary with the NAACP. Then she did go to the Highlander Folk School at that time, which of course a lot of the white people or people who are fully against it called a communism school, and they had all types of negative names for it because it was actually pumping out great leaders, great people who did movements and actions. And so this was in August of 1955. She refused to get up in December of 1955. But when she left in the school in August, they asked her, you know, so when you go back to Montgomery, what are you gonna do? And she said she wasn't gonna do anything. She said the white resistance was way too strong there, and that black people will not stand together. Um, so they won't stick together and stand there. So but she said she promised to go back and bring something to the NAACP. Um, well, she did something in Montgomery without even knowing that she was going to do it. And what really pushed her was she was tired. Her feet hurt, she was tired, and she didn't want to get up. And she felt like she didn't have to get up because she was actually sitting in what was the quote unquote, there goes air quotes, black section of the bus. She was just in the front row and the rest of the bus got full. And so the bus driver asked four people to move from this row so this one white man could sit down. Because you know, he couldn't sit down next to them. He had to have the whole row. Well, she refused to get up because she said her feet were tired and she didn't feel as if she needed to move.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

She was in the segregated area, she was just in the front row of it, and that's what I thought that I mean I thought with my limited memory of the learning that in high school, I thought maybe the the segregated section was full, and then she sat down on the white section.

SPEAKER_03 46:05

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

And she wouldn't get up.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

Nope.

unknown 46:08

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 46:08

And it was more of a project, just more of a stubborn being her being stubborn rather than her feet hurting. One of the that's how that's how things we things get get get taught and misconstrued for education.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

Right. One of the links that I sent you is a video of her saying it. Her saying the story of it, that she was in the right section. She sat down in the front row, and that's why she didn't think she needed to move. She was tired, plus she was already in her section, and so she didn't feel like she did. I know, I I grew up, I thought that she was sitting at the front of the bus and just decided she was gonna sit there and wasn't gonna move. No, that was not the case. She was in the front row of the back of the bus. And the front of the bus, the white section was full, and one man needed to sit down, so four people in that whole row needed to get up. Three of them did, one of them did not. And um, so then she was arrested, and that's what triggered that. But that's see, that's just it. A lot of things when we were taught, I was taught like Rosa Parks was just an average everyday woman, just going on with life, just moving and um not really it they never talked about like she was ever involved in the civil rights movement prior to that, like she ever had any training, like she already did have a couple steps up ahead of her uh and and had some ideas and things in mind. She already had resistance that she had developed and had done. It wasn't just purely that she was tired, um, but it was that that was the last straw for it all to come out. Uh, but she did have some background and her knowing Martin, uh Luther King Jr. at that time, when she was arrested, he found out and he's also the one that started then going out saying she was arrested for this, we need to do this, and that's what started the whole boycott and started the whole movement, and then it just kept kept rolling and kept going from there.

SPEAKER_04 47:56

Um then then I heard later that she's an antagonist. That she did that her that she just did this to be aggressive and antagonistic. That's the next story I heard.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Of course. And you wanna know what I promise you that that story was was from somebody who was against the civil rights movement.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Mm-hmm. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

You know, yeah, that story was definitely from somebody who was against the civil rights movement. Very much so strong with it and understand. Um, because anybody who who fought against whatever they were telling us to do were antagonists or were violent or were non-compliant or they, you know, troublemakers and everything negative versus that person who was a bigot just to just to be, you know, racist and and actually had no level for humanity themselves and wanting to to to own all of us and put us over it, were the ones looking at it, but we got called everything negative. Um, and that's just the story how it goes still to this day. I mean, if you think about things, how it goes that still to this day, with sadly the recent, which people can understand, the recent shootings within ICE, and they were called domestic terrorists right away without knowing anything else to come with it. So um or Greta, or yeah, all the all the aggressive, negative, incorrect descriptions are Greta, emotionally unstable, she needs anger management, like all of those things, yes, definitely, which is far and wide, you know, far from it.

SPEAKER_04 49:25

So from what they hear Renee Good, Alex Predi. Yeah, all of them. You know, if you when you hear these stories and they're so and such a negative, you can you can when you sort of hear these stories or listen to them or read them, you can see the negative rhetoric, and you can read between the lines and see how they're biased. Some can and you can say, wait a minute, maybe I need to reread it, look into this a little bit more. Because it because it that that negativity, you can read that how but that bias, you can tell it's biased by how negative it is, yeah, and make a decision. I need to know more.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Right, right. Yeah, you definitely can, and with it going, but you know, some people will see between the lines, and some people can watch the movie it happen in their face and be in the room and still think that there's something else that happened than what really did, or will state it, you know. They'll develop this story in their own mind, even though you were right there. Yeah, this own narrative, and it's like you were right there. You didn't see them run. No, I didn't see them. They stood still. Yeah, no, they were running, you know. Um, so it's it's sad that's just that's all uh, I guess some people's perception and and what we all want to fully believe or not believe. Um I don't know. I don't know. But you know, my point for bringing her up was that she, you know, she did have that, she had a little bit of background in her, she had a little bit of uh uh oomph and and was already starting for this movement to keep it going, which you know, thank goodness. I'm glad. I'm glad that she did. And I think having that training in that background prepares you for going to jail for all the other things that come with that, you know, uh resistance on there. The you know, the people I'm sure she got harassed and told and all of that multiple, you know, throughout the time. But it helps prepare you for those things, which yeah. Which that's good. So yeah, that's my new little twist on Rosa Parks. If you didn't know the background before the boycott and how it kind of developed and how she did have that background and that backbone already there.

SPEAKER_04 51:42

Well, it it it got me thinking to what's happening locally to me. Uh um, I live in a very conservative suburb. Washington's very, very blue, but uh blue to purple, uh, or the blue side of purple. Um, but there's pockets that are extreme that are very, very far red. Um an ongoing controversy right now um is that we need a a bridge span that goes over the Columbia River between Vancouver and Portland, Oregon. Um, but there's a big movement against it, especially from the far right. Not only the the the cost to um to take care of it, but it's a it's a it's an interstate bridge, so a lot of it's gonna be federal covered by federal. And then how is the rest gonna pay for it? Is it gonna be tolls and uh who's gonna pay those tolls, how are they gonna be regulated, how's it gonna be applied and whatnot. But whenever I really talk to people who um really want to talk about it, it the the whole thing comes down to race and demographics and economics. They don't want people of color or the homeless or anybody like that coming from into their neighborhood. Now, the construction of the bridge, it's a major undertak undertaking, and it's gonna impact a lot of people's homes along the shoreline, things like that.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

You know, people are gonna have to move coming from homeless.

SPEAKER_04 53:40

But I it it it got me thinking about how much the discussion over prolonging public transportation comes down to race.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

Wow, but I'm like, is it is it buy a homeless home? That's it's absolutely insane. But are they just considering that any piece of transportation is gonna make some homeless people come in, or is it like base registered side? Is there is there any like homeless community that's right there, or is it much so? Yeah, there's there the uh as the very much so the big homeless community from the base of where it's at, there were there's a homeless community located right there. Okay, so that's where it's expanding into other neighborhoods. It's because it needs to be so if it was from an affluent neighborhood to an affluent neighborhood, it would be just fine. It'd probably have been approved, it sounds like probably, but no.

SPEAKER_04 54:41

Um I think they still don't want to spend the money, and they st because uh because public transportation is associated with people of color and and people of lower economics, they don't want those people coming to that area.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

Which is so sad. That that is um, and the reason why I say that, do you know how many people I watch? Because I live right off of a highway, the interstate, and there's a bus big bus depot area. Park and go catch that bus, and I promise you they're not low-income colored people, like you know, that that are on that bus that are taking the public transportation to go ahead and go to work. It is not just the poor people who catch a bus. It is everybody takes public transportation, everybody uses it, you know, except for probably these teenagers nowadays because they seem to only want to do Ubers, but you know, they don't seem to know how to catch a bus, but except for to get to school sometimes. I will say that they do have those bus passes, so let me take that back.

SPEAKER_04 55:40

It would reduce traffic and congestion. It you'd be able to go see more and do more. It g I remember remember when the I-35 bridge collapsed, how much that screwed up?

SPEAKER_02 55:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 55:55

The uh um just even that small span there. Yeah, it it it's it's it imagine that times three. That that that that's how important this this bridge construction is. And the bridge already.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Um one that actually the only way people are going to get over it is to face it. Is to face it head on, is to have to face it and have to force it. So um if it it kind of comes down to that ethics of uh what what's all for the all good, the overall good, what's better for the overall good? And it sounds like actually having that bridge for the economic stability and to be able to do the transportation, which will open up a lot of actual financial money and um and grants, which I'm actually a little surprised Canada is allowing it to happen instead of us fighting it. But um oh that that gets into a whole nother thing about the two different bridges and going to Canada with where they're at right now, which I don't blame Canada for having hesitation with us. Shoot, um, right now, you know, we're not partners. Um but any type of situation that happens like that, um, and their issue is because of a race, I think that it needs to be implemented because those things people need to face and get over it in order for our country to start moving on, for our world to start moving on, because it's not just the United States that has these racism problems.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

No, you're right, it's happening worldwide.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:42

So study these problems and get to know them. Yeah, study these people as well. And if you see a problem, get to understand the problem before you make a decision on it, and decide on a solution. Yes, understand the problem before you you make a decision on the solution.

SPEAKER_01 58:03

Yes, yes, yes. Before developing the solution, understand that problem. Um, understand the the the root of it and how it came about and um exactly. Especially this transportation thing, yeah, yeah, and figuring out those that's a good prime example of it, you know. Or, you know, the kid's hand is another huge great example as well. So, you know, um figure it out before you end up kissing pee.

unknown 58:33

Right.

SPEAKER_04 58:35

Well, thank you, everybody. Selena, those are really, really great picks.

SPEAKER_03 58:40

Yours as well. Love it.

SPEAKER_04 58:42

You know, I need to study both of them more because I get told certain things and I try to not make my decisions uh on them. But I and I have, and and I need to correct those decisions and those thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

It's okay, you know, as long as you're open to learning, that's all that matters. As long as you're open to learning and knowing new things. Because I didn't know either until I until I learned. So, you know, yeah, uh hey, that's okay. As long as we're open to learning, everybody just keep learning, keep focusing, and stay open-minded. And um, once again, like we always say, take care of each other, be kind to each other. It doesn't take much, and um, let's all continue to get to know each other and uh keep going.

SPEAKER_04 59:24

It does it doesn't take a lot of effort or money to be nice.

SPEAKER_01 59:28

No, you can do it for free.

SPEAKER_04 59:29

Yeah, exactly. So be well, everybody. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

Good night.

SPEAKER_04 59:35

We'll see you next month.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

Yes, yes. Next week, we got one more week in March. One more week in March.

SPEAKER_04 59:41

We do?

SPEAKER_01 59:42

We do. We got one more week in March. So we got one more. Oh wow, we do.

SPEAKER_04 59:45

So we're we're gonna have we're we have one more thing to cover for Women's History Month. I thought I thought this was it.

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Nope, one more to cover up. So come and check us out.

SPEAKER_04 59:53

That'll be part four. This is part three.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Come and check us out next week um for our March Women Madness. That's whatever we should call it, March Women Madness, um, and find out who we will be wrapping it up with next week. Can't wait to see you guys then.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

Right. All right, take care, everybody. Line up.