Maria & Finley, A Family Running For Marion County Commissioner

"Bisexuals give cat energy and Pansexuals give dog energy." Today we chatted with Maria (she/her) who's running for Marion County Commissioner on the behalf of queer and working families and her spouse Finley (they/them). Together they are powerful team and a force for progressive good.

https://www.maria4oregon.com/

https://www.instagram.com/maria4oregon/

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:07

Ahoi, gems and jewels! And non-binary goals. I'm Tallow.

SPEAKER_06 0:11

I'm Nyx. And you're listening to The Treasures of Queer Salem. Where two of your favorite troublemaking pirates discover the riches of the Queer Sea while aboard the Salamander. Today, we're gonna get to talk to Maria Hojos Pressi, she, her, daughter of Mexican immigrants, one of the 4% of Latinas with master's degree, and also your future Marion County Commissioner.

SPEAKER_07 0:33

We're also talking to Maria's partner, Finley Pressi. They then are 30 years old and strive to look like a queer Sauron, but is actually three raccoons in a trench coat. Each one represents one of the colors in the pan flag.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I'm the reason the rum's always gone.

SPEAKER_05 1:42

I um keep uh taking the um captain's hook. That's that's where I'm at. Um I'm picking on Do we wanna ask what you're doing with that? I guess. I just realized.

SPEAKER_07 1:57

Maria is shaking her head.

SPEAKER_06 1:59

We got a couple of baddies in this right now. Oh no. Hey, okay, so uh we always like to start with our first question, which is and there's two of you. This is our first time having two people on the podcast at the same time. Yes, we've had to do multiple technical run throughs now. Yes, we have. Um, but the first question is always how do you identify? And we can kind of start with whoever wants to start first. How do you identify? And how did you get to the identity that you currently identify with today?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Do you want to go first?

SPEAKER_06 2:26

Do you want me to go first? You go first.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Okay, I'm identify as bisexual, and I think I got there because I started dating a girl in middle school, which subsequently Finley and I have known each other since middle school. So this works out really well for us to be on the podcast together because a lot of our identity I think is in enmeshed in each other. We've been married since we were 19 years old. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

Gosh, that's a little Yeah, that's a long time.

SPEAKER_07 2:57

Yeah. I got married when I was 23. And that's like super early. Twenty-five for me.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

I think a lot of people would say all of those are fairly early. Yeah. Yeah. People always kind of looked at us sideways through the years because they're like, oh wow, 19? Really?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah. When we got married, everybody thought I was pregnant.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

Yeah. But was not the case.

SPEAKER_06 3:24

Maybe with a burrito?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yes. I mean, we did live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there's a lot of good food. A lot of good burritos. A lot of soap pipillas.

SPEAKER_06 3:38

Yes. So you mentioned um well, I'll I'll transfer over to Finley.

SPEAKER_05 3:43

Oh, yeah, sorry. Um, yeah, uh, Finley, they them. Um, yeah, um, it took me a long time to come to terms with my identity as non-binary as well as um pansexual, as a it does kind of feel like a mouthful sometimes, right? Um, but uh yeah, no, it it mostly just took a lot of years of therapy and learning to love myself, um, mostly thanks to this one. Um I yeah, without her, yeah, I would probably just be a really angry cis had a row. And that would be so sad because it wouldn't be who I am. Um, yeah, because it with without her, yeah, no, no, I didn't go to therapy, I didn't figure it all out.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

So if anybody's ever wondering, there is a worse timeline. The worst timeline is Finley never figured out their identity. Yeah. And I became a police officer for the Portland Police Bureau.

SPEAKER_06 4:41

Oh no. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

That's a whole other side tangent.

SPEAKER_06 4:44

That was on your mind. Oh no. For a time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we I we we have time to talk about that if you want to, but yeah, I am gonna like I want to go back to the story. You you mentioned 19 years old, got married, high school, uh, high school sweethearts is the question.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, we started dating when we were 17 years old. So we met in seventh grade, kind of like drifted apart, especially because my life, I moved around a lot. My dad built hotels, and one thing I asked was when I was in high school to just stay in one place.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

And Finley dropped out of middle school.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:23

So when she did come back to high school, like I did not see her for a long time and then just initi finally um kind of ran into each other around town because it is just a really small town. Um, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:36

This is not Albuquerque.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

No, this was Carlsbad, New Mexico. Okay. And so Carlsbad Caverns, if anybody out there listeners, know of it.

SPEAKER_06 5:45

Somebody out there is just like, oh my god, I know exactly where this is.

SPEAKER_05 5:49

Great place to visit, not a good place to live.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Um I say that about all of New Mexico.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

All of New Mexico. It's called land of entrapment for a reason. Oh no. And and so yeah, we we lived in Carlsbad for a lot of years and then moved to Albuquerque together at the beginning of college.

SPEAKER_06 6:06

So give me an idea of what Carlsbad feels like. Is it like, you know, we're we're we live or this podcast is primarily in Salem. I'm assuming it's not Salem sized.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

Honestly, yeah, it kind of is in some aspects. It depends on whether you're looking at the the actual city limits or the metropolitan area. The metropolitan area is much larger than Salem. However, the city limit size, they're almost identical.

SPEAKER_06 6:31

Oh, so it's like butting up against the other side?

SPEAKER_05 6:32

It's butting up against a bunch of other tiny towns, and there's a lot of other relatively decent-sized towns within like a 15 to 20 minute drive of Albuquerque.

SPEAKER_07 6:44

So did you go back to high school school later on?

SPEAKER_05 6:47

Or uh yeah, yeah, I did. I well, in a way, I guess. I did not go back to high school in the uh sense of like going back to classes and lockers and all that fun jazz, but I did um in the state of New Mexico, you can graduate at the age of 16. And so when I turned 16, I went and took the GED. And at the time in New Mexico, if you graduate with honors with a GED, they'll give you a high school diploma too. So I did that, and uh, they gave me that, and I tried college for a minute, and that was not for me. Um, but yeah, it was for her.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah, at 17 I was like, yeah, my partner is in college, but it and then it wasn't in the skee way.

SPEAKER_05 7:31

It wasn't in a skee-view way because we were the same age.

SPEAKER_06 7:34

Yeah, that's actually pretty standard, like a junior, right, at that time.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I was finishing my senior year when we started dating.

SPEAKER_06 7:42

Oh, yeah. Then then yeah, a lot of like it it's pretty common to see like seniors dating college people because you know, yeah, it's not too cool. It's not too big a difference.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

Yeah, yeah, college people are somewhat cooler.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

And I think to go back to like kind of like set the scene, if you will. Yeah, Carlsbad is of course the desert, it's flat, and it is an oil field town. So primarily the industry is just a bunch of oil field workers that come in from Texas. There's a housing shortage, always. We always have have a housing shortage, but the way that they solved it, especially since there was so many temporary workers, is just to build a ton of hotels, which goes back to how I ended up there, because my dad built hotels.

SPEAKER_06 8:23

Oh so it's your dad's fault. It's my dad's fault. I mean, usually uh hotels will uh sometimes bring in business like jobs, employment. Um so I guess that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, but I mean, like typically when you think of like building hotels, you're thinking about a booming tourism industry, not a like alternative to housing people.

SPEAKER_05 8:45

Yeah, the issue with Carlsbad is that like Carlsbad when I was like maybe my daughter's age, like eight, right? It's if you look on the census records, it's supposed to have something like 27 to 35,000 people living in it. But at any given time, the actual population of Carlsbad is closer to 100,000 to 150,000. And so it's it categorically does not have the housing available to sustain that population. And so they just they live in tons of hotels and motels all around Midland and Carlsbad, Roswell, Artesia, and yeah, they just come in from Texas and they do all their work there, and and yeah, a large portion of the economy in that area is all bolstered by um oil field.

SPEAKER_06 9:30

Okay, you said a word that I think kind of triggered something in my head, and I'm I'm thinking they've tallowed thought of it too, but I heard the word Roswell. Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:38

Carlsbad is an hour from Roswell. Okay, cool. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

So then you can say that I'm an alien in more ways than one. Oh damn. I can't. I will not.

SPEAKER_06 9:52

Just background uh mix kind of same similar background. So this is like this is this is on point. The burrito joke was direct. Fantastic. Um, but I did really love the like the the narrative that you had, like going to uh your Gedhead, a Jedhead, or G D head. Yeah, that's what I called him. I don't know. Jedhead? I'll accept it. It's a term that we had here for some reason. I've never heard that before.

SPEAKER_05 10:18

I've never heard it either, but I like it.

SPEAKER_06 10:19

It's offensive. I don't know. No, it's probably not as offensive as being called like, you know, there's POC, and then somebody called me a puck. That did not sound bad. That feels weird. Yeah, that feels not good.

SPEAKER_05 10:30

Anyway. I don't mean like like like like two? Like Tupac? Yeah, yeah. Like Shakur? Really?

SPEAKER_06 10:38

Um, but education, and then you mentioned you continue to go to education after that.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, so then I went to the University of New Mexico. Everyone's a lobo. Wolf woof woof. And that was very interesting. Uh Albuquerque, New Mexico is I mean, it's I think the biggest city in New Mexico.

SPEAKER_07 11:00

I'm guessing you didn't go for hospitality.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

No, but oh my gosh, that would have been great. I went my first year thinking that I was gonna go into political science, and I think, you know, this this will eventually come back around, right? But I changed my major for every single year I was in undergrad.

SPEAKER_07 11:20

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I I could not decide on what I wanted. Um, and at one point I had I was a business major, and I distinctly remember driving back from Carlsbad because Carlsbad and Albuquerque is a four-hour drive away that we'd make like almost every weekend. And now that seems like forever away, but it was just like, oh, you know, I'm just going back home for the weekend. And I had like this whole breakdown where I was like, I don't want to be a business major, I don't want to participate in this capitalistic society. But I had so many credits that I ended up graduating with a minor in business and my major's in religious studies. And that's also because as a Latina, I grew up Catholic and I had a very atheist partner that regularly pushed me on why do you believe what you believe? And that sounded a lot nicer than it actually was.

SPEAKER_05 12:13

It was not nice at the time. I was an asshole. I was not kind about it, and I I any for any atheist listening to that, you don't be an asshole to your partner about their religion. Um, you can make them and I request that they they do some critical thinking and questioning on things, but don't assume you know everything. And uh the angry atheist. Oh, yeah, yeah. I I went through that phase like 16 to 18, really angry atheist. And I also went to Mexico and got to go to like Basilica de Guadalupe with her and stuff, which is gorgeous. But when you're an angry atheist, you have a lot of not great things to say about the whole thing, and you also don't think about how that is coming from a white person with blue eyes talking mad schmack about a very important cultural thing. Um, and so it took a lot of growing up for me to learn that I didn't need to be that way.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

And also at this point in time, we thought that you were a cisgendered hetero-white man. So there's a cisgendered hetero-white man at the time ragging on you about your religion. So I went, all right, bet I'm gonna get a whole ass degree in this. And I'm gonna I'm gonna know more than you.

SPEAKER_05 13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

And so that's what happened.

SPEAKER_05 13:35

I would never debate her about religion ever again. No, never, no, about like the third year of college, you know, she'd have like all these uh professors who had incredible things to say and had so much the culture and things from all over the different places and you know, all over the world where they'd she'd be learning from these people, and she'd she'd start talking about um, you know, the really intricate different differences between like the different sects of Islam or different sects of you know, whatever religion it may be at the time that she was studying. And I slowly began to realize that I didn't know shit. I really didn't know shit. I really thought I did, but I didn't. And yeah, about the third year I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. You're right about everything. You're I'm sorry. Cause like I started the unlearning journey and figuring out like my gender and sexuality around like 1819 when we moved and you're in college and you have a little bit more freedom and you're out of the echo chamber and you can breathe and learn the vocabulary to figure out what the fuck you actually are. Yeah. Yeah you know, and that's not something we had in the Southwest. That they do not give I I mean I I know that kids everywhere don't get an we don't get a notebook, right? We don't get a textbook that says, here's how everything works. But um in the Southwest, they really do not give you any form of just emotional literacy or gender literacy, sexual literacy literacy, just the literacy to understand yourself is non-existent.

SPEAKER_06 15:11

Okay, so I I sorry, I I got I have the wrong impression of New Mexico. Because when it when you look at the map, it's always blue, right? Right, and then you also like you hear about the very, very like um uh what is it called? Like very pro-social efforts that are being made towards like the the demographic. I don't know. I'm I'm curious, like what what what's the difference there? Like what what is actually happening in New Mexico from your perspective, especially having grown up there?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

I mean, I would say a lot of that is brand new. I mean, right, this past year in 2025 they passed like free child care.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

Yeah, yeah, free child care for all.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

But when we lived there, we were in 50th of child poverty, 50th in education.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

Some of the highest teenage birth rates in the country and no child care whatsoever for any of them.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

And even though it was a like Democrat-led state, because our governor's always Democrat, we have I say we, like I st we still live there. New Mexico has the highest um gun fatalities, like like comparable to red states. So despite the fact that it looks blue, it's very red.

SPEAKER_05 16:31

Yeah, and there's a lot of things you don't get without living there. Like there's little bits you pick up on, like um I used to ride motorcycles when I was in Albuquerque, right? And grew up doing that and grew up around a little bit of motorcycle culture. Um and you I would hear things about like we have here, we have things like Baca, which is bikers against child abuse, um, which is a really, really cool um thing that that shows up for kids whenever they've been put in really bad situations, and they show up and they pack the courtrooms for these kids. But those things, like when I first moved to Albuquerque, I was like, oh my god, I know I know that New Mexico has some of the highest um child abuse rates in the country. I want to help. How can I help? I could get involved with Baca, right? Uh, and that led me to find out that like New Mexico and Alaska are the only two states in the United States that don't have an active Baca chapter, and that is because the motorcycle organizations that exist in those places do not allow Baca to ride on their streets. Uh, you can't ride ride a baca cut in New Mexico, you will be taken out of the state. Um, and it's because there is such rampant child abuse in New Mexico that they will not allow organizations like that to come in and do anything about it. Um they they they cope with, you know, the regulars we have our our um the system, if you will, that that helps, but those extracurricular, you know, act um systems that are put in place to help, you know, those kids, the those aren't allowed in New Mexico. And so there's a lot of things like that that you don't think about um until you're really in it, and uh and you're looking around, you see a lot of kids suffering, and you see people having issues regularly, and then you find out that, oh, it's like this is a systematic choice that people have made because the adults here have all looked around and gone, oh, kids are being hurt. We should do exactly nothing about that. Um it was part of why we left um when we had we had our kid and left within two weeks. Yeah. That's yeah, we drove across country with a newborn.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

I found out my last semester of my undergraduate graduate year that I was pregnant, and ironically enough, it was in my biblical law class, and I was writing a paper about abortion in the Bible.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

And then I found out I was pregnant.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Exactly. And yeah, I finished I got my degree, um, graduated in May. My daughter was born in August, and by September we were in Oregon.

SPEAKER_07 19:17

Wow, so why Oregon?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Finley is originally from Oregon. They were born in Eugene in Jewgene. In Jeugen, Eugene, um, and their step-grandmother lived in Silverton, and so we at least had like a family home base here. And because the other option was New Mexico. My parents live in Texas now.

SPEAKER_05 19:42

Yeah. And I didn't we didn't want to raise a kid there, like at all. And at the the apartment we lived in at the time, there was just a lot going on. Like we had neighbors who were got their cars shot out just for being queer.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

We had, you know, this is like the trigger warning portion of the involvement.

SPEAKER_05 19:57

Apologies there, but you know, there was just a lot of stuff happening in our apartment complex, and we lived on the good side of town. Um, and there was just consistent um issues, and like um, and yeah, I think it just kind of came to a head, and we were like, Yeah, we are not raising a kid here. Uh, we can't we can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:15

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah, the the yeah, the trigger warning part of that is like, you know, 2016, Donald Trump got elected.

SPEAKER_05 20:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Um found a swastika drawn on my car.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Our downstairs neighbors, which were a very lovely lesbian couple with a beautiful son.

SPEAKER_05 20:33

They were lovely people. Car windows shot out. Who got their car shot out.

unknown 20:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:39

So yeah, it's there's a lot of homophobia and a lot of xenophobia and racism down there. Um, even with such a prominently mixed population of like we have just a lot of Latinos and white people mixing on a day-to-day basis. Yeah. In New Mexico? Like what?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

You wouldn't think, right? They identify as Hispanic.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Oh. Yeah. They don't identify as Mexican Mexicans on the other.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

If you look at the at the seal of the University of New Mexico, it's two conquistadores. Yeah. Uh there was a whole, you know, this was like 2017 when I graduated college, and so uh a whole movement around like no longer recognizing Columbus Day and calling it Indigenous People's Day, and that was like a whole big thing on campus. Like a lot of like staunch, like, no, we must hang on to Columbus Day in a community that like has so many indigenous community members. And I mean, I still do feel some type of way that the reservations are called pueblos, and it's all very much like affiliated with that Catholic colonialism.

SPEAKER_06 21:54

Yeah. Yeah. And then you move to Oregon and that transition. Was it, did you have like you have family here?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Oh yeah.

unknown 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:04

One of our pretty smooth transition. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Not for me.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

A thousand percent for me. I still deal with hypervigilance. Like I'm still deconstructing hypervigilance. Um, it's it's uh yeah, yeah, it's weird. I remember times when we first moved up here where we would be at a grocery store and people like you'd be walking and somebody would like be looking at you and they would, you know, make eye contact or something, and then they'd smile and wave at me. But the internal part of me was getting ready to fight. Yeah. And I'm like, why are you looking at me? What what the fuck are you doing? You mad dogging me, bro? Yeah, like are we about to do something?

SPEAKER_00 22:46

And Islos knows.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's and it's it's um May I help you? Like it's it's it's in the blood a little bit, but it's also due to where we grew up. It's a little bit of that. There's times where watching for that car to come back around the block a second time saved my life. There's times where ducking into the brush or going through a different alley was the difference between getting jumped and not getting jumped. And so I think that, yeah, not having to do that here in Oregon is weird, and it was weird for a really, really long time. I'm just now getting to the point where it's like it's kind of normal. Yeah, I feel normal that people are just out and about living life and not constantly looking beyond behind them, you know. So you're saying that Oregon is perfect. I wish, I wish, but it is great. God, we love it here.

SPEAKER_06 23:37

Yeah, yeah. I I'm interested in seeing that. Like I'm hearing that transition from New Mexico, New Mexico, and then coming over here to Oregon and that experience having and then you're also stepping away with your kiddo. And how how did that change? What what happened when you came to Oregon?

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Oh man, a lot of just trying to survive. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

The first bit was hard.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah, because I mean having a kid is already kind of isolating, yeah, especially because it's it's so hard, especially in this day and age, whenever it comes to questions about like the vaccine schedule and like the when you have a kid suddenly it's like breast milk or uh formula, and if you're feeding your kid formula, you're a terrible person.

SPEAKER_05 24:25

It's a lot of judgment in areas where there should not be.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

You should be cloth diapering or else you're killing the environment. And so like there's just so much coming at you at one time, and so it can be very isolating. And the only person that we had was their step-grandmother, which granted was very nice, you know, that we had Sunday dinners with this little old Italian lady.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

Yeah, that was very nice. Um, I wouldn't say it was like uh something that was um excessively helpful to us at the time, like, but it was really grounding. It was really grounding to be able to go somewhere on Sunday and still have dinner with family, you know. Um But yeah, it took it took us some time, but we found family here and and the rest of our family followed us up here, at least at least my family. Um but yeah, the we've been lucky enough here that there's just an amazing queer community and an amazing support community that we've been able to that kind of wrap around ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Yeah, and so like I mentioned, 2017 we moved and that was like about September. So we really got 2018, 2019, two years of normal Oregon and then the pandemic happened, and so my daughter was like three years old, but oh no. So even then, like right, like you're already kind of like isolating yourself because like oh my god, germs. Yeah, so many germs. And then the pandemic happened.

SPEAKER_06 25:54

Preschool kindergarten years.

SPEAKER_05 25:58

Yeah, it was a it was a tough time, I think, like for everybody, right? Like the the pandemic sucked. But yeah, being new parents during the pandemic with not a lot of support community was really difficult.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Yeah, and that's where um I was Did you both find work up here here when you came? Yeah, so Finn is a autoglass person by trade.

SPEAKER_05 26:22

Sorry, what autoglass? Yeah, uh I used to replace windshields and like um door glass, door glasses, back glasses, all that fun jazz. If it's the glass and it's in your car, I used to replace it. Yeah. Um, yeah, no, and I did truck accessories and like bedliners and stuff like that when I was young. Um it was kind of a family gig that I had to do from just stupid young. I did it from the time I was younger than my daughter, and I'm I hate it now. I never want to see another car again.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Um Well, and it ruined their their body.

SPEAKER_05 26:54

Yeah, there is that. Yeah, unfortunately, working from a really young age um and in manual labor does not do super kind things to your body. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yeah, but yeah, so and I was just a stay-at-home parent, and about six months into having my daughter, I was like, I'm going crazy, and so I got an online master's degree at Arizona State University, and that's how I ended up with my master's in sociology.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

But the kind of circling back to the the worst timeline bit is because we're in this place where my daughter is almost three years old. Finley is working in a terrible manual labor job that is just like destroying their mental health. And I mean, I was able to go back into the workforce, but I was r ha ha really underemployed. I was making like I think like$17 an hour, like yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:49

Yeah, you were doing like data transfer for medical billing for a chiropractor's office. Yeah, insurance billing for a chiropractor's office, which is so I'm I would never say anything bad about somebody who does that job, but yeah, you were very underemployed at that time. And yeah, we felt that keenly, like she would come home and she's just like, I my brain's on fire. This is not giving my brain the juices it needs.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

And so I was like, what is a way that I could make enough money to support my family of three? You know, so Finley can leave the workforce and would give me a bonus for like a pay bump because I'm bilingual and I have a postgraduate degree. And that's how we ended up with the police department.

SPEAKER_06 28:38

Oh no. Okay. You gotta give us the the the do you want to? You don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

No, no. Yeah. So like I said, this seemed like of an avenue to be able to support my whole family. And I got as far as doing the physical fitness tests, and I will say that the reason that I picked the Portland Police Bureau, because I also tried out for the Beaverton Police Department, um, was I was working had previously worked at a domestic violence resource center in Beaverton. And I mean we worked closely with police officers, especially whenever we're supporting folks during domestic violence. And I made some pretty good relationships, and you know, kind of like when you first get into a new relationship and you're like, I can fix them. Yeah. I was like, I could fix the police.

SPEAKER_04 29:34

And I was behind her, going, No, you can't. No, you can't, please don't do this.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

And this whole time, too, I am trying to be more like civically engaged in the community. And folks had actually asked me to run for school board at that time. So I'd gotten connected to some of like the movement organizations, and right before I'm like committing myself.

SPEAKER_07 30:01

You're still in Eugene at this point.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

No, we're we're in Kaiser.

SPEAKER_07 30:05

You're in Kaiser.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

We're in Kaiser. We lived in Kaiser in the area that is considered the ghetto of Kaiser.

SPEAKER_05 30:11

Yeah, if there can be one, I it was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

It's it's like Plymouth and Cherry.

SPEAKER_05 30:18

Yeah, it's like Salem Parkway and River Road, right where they meet. Right. Um, yeah, it was funny. When we first moved up here, my grandma was like, be careful over there. It's bad. And I was like, sweetie, you know where we're moving from, right? Like, this is a paradise.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

I have had Kaiser politicians, like when I tell them that I lived off of Plymouth and Cherry, go, oh.

SPEAKER_06 30:42

Well, you've had a hard time growing up.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

So hard. Um, but yeah, right as I was committing to go through all the testing for the Portland Police Bureau, I get a phone call from my now boss and is like, hey, I think I have a job for you.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

So that's that's what I'm saying. There is a there is a worse timeline. That phone call never happened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:06

Yes. I do want to get to that part uh with Pekoon, but before we get there, I do want to kind of like um hear a little bit more about these identities that you mentioned. Finn, you mentioned like the the non-binary breakout, and then um you you mentioned over there, bye. I would love a lot of the people who are listening are coming from that kind of background. Um, and so I'd love to if you want to share, um, you know, how did that happen? How did you discover some of these identities?

SPEAKER_00 31:33

I mean, of course we want to share. That's the whole point of being here.

SPEAKER_06 31:35

Right. I want to talk about myself.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

I yeah. I mean, I am a politician and an only child. So I love, I love everybody. Look at me, everybody listen to me.

SPEAKER_05 31:47

I'm an extroverted introvert, which means I don't leave my house. But if you can get me talking, I never shut the hell up. And so I feel we're in a cozy room now. Yeah, and I've I've gotten comfortable now, and now we're in the danger area where I genuinely someone might need to be like, hey, yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

But I think my bisexual identity came pretty easily to me.

SPEAKER_07 32:15

You said you were dating a girl in middle school?

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Her name was Britney.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

And like I said, Finley didn't like her.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

No, I was wildly jealous.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Well, and also, like, I mean, she wasn't the best person. She was also really mean.

SPEAKER_06 32:32

I was gonna say shout out to Britney, but no question mark.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

I mean, you know, I well, I mean, you know, shout out to Britney, you know, everybody's like a a piece of your journey or what have you.

SPEAKER_06 32:41

Jokes on you, Britney, since transitioned and is now shit. Am I canceled? It might be.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

And I I don't know. Like, I've I for some reason I had always just comfortably lived in that world where I was like, I find women attractive and I also find males attractive. Like, I, you know, and I mean, granted, where we grew up, it probably was the extent of our understanding. You were either gay, lesbian, or bisexual. And like that was as far as the alphabet mafia went for us. Um, and so I've had that identity for years, probably since 2008.

SPEAKER_06 33:28

Um sorry, I I I I there's always that context contextual dynamic that kind of comes up to mind. It's like your family, how did that happen? Uh were they okay with you being bi? Um They technically don't know.

SPEAKER_05 33:43

Oh so don't tell them. Did they think Britney was just a friend? They're roommates. It's just a friendly friend, and they were just friends, they were roommates.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

No, I mean my mom did ask me one time, you know, the Mexican mom, it is lesbiana.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

It is lesbiana.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

And I was like, no. And it's not a lie.

SPEAKER_05 34:06

You're right.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

No, you're not wrong. You're not wrong.

SPEAKER_07 34:09

Lesbian doesn't even begin to cover it. Exactly. I am not so narrow. How dare you dare you?

SPEAKER_00 34:17

So yeah, I mean, I've it's never it's never been something that I've necessarily hidden, but it's also not something that I've like outwardly addressed. I mean, like my social media, I'm literally wearing bicolors and a hat that says pride, and I'm at a pride event, but I don't know, it's just like one of those things that like has not been brought up or addressed. And then especially, you know, kind of going back to Finley's identity, I have always been in a relationship that appeared very heteronormative to people.

SPEAKER_06 34:50

We're undercover. Do you think that's ever affected like you know, there's usually there's that term like by erasure, right? So it's like if if whatever, if the society perceives you as blah blah blah, like do you feel like that has taken away a part of your identity, or do you feel how has that dynamic affected you?

SPEAKER_00 35:09

I think honestly, what has affected me is whenever Finley came out to me, is that I was like, Oh, I don't want my identity to essentially erase your identity.

SPEAKER_05 35:25

Yeah, yeah, because we had then had to kind of grapple with this, like, well, because she was like, Well, I'm bi, but if you are non-binary, does that mean I'm pan now? And and so it was like sort of um trying not to erase each other's identity while growing with each other is is also a journey, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

And we have fully established that the difference between pan and bi people is that by people give you cat energy and pan people give you track energy.

SPEAKER_05 35:54

That's very true. It's well established in our household. I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:00

Oh my god, I'm writing that down. That's gonna be the title of this podcast. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_04 36:05

Awesome.

SPEAKER_07 36:08

So Finley, your journey was a little bit more fraught, it sounds like. They're layers, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

I I like an onion. Like an onion, yeah. I I make you cry. Um no, I I don't know. I think I I am I've talked to a lot of people about their childhoods, and they my childhood matches up with a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Um, I had a really weird childhood in that I got to experience kind of both sides of the spectrum where um there were times where we were as a family doing so well. Like, so well. There was a a large, a large portion of my childhood where my dad owned his own business and he was kicking ass. Like he was kicking ass and taking names, and he took us to Disney World, and so I experienced that sort of um privileged life that I had at the time that I didn't know was privileged in any way, shape, or form. And then um, you know, the family would fall on harder times later and went through times where the only reasons, you know, where there was food on the table for Thanksgiving was because your neighbors would pitch in and help feed you. And like that was for me um learning kind of what community is and um what found family is, like in friendship and stuff, because it wasn't always and and I don't want to say that it wasn't at all because my parents are religious and and they did receive help from a lot of their church community, but it wasn't always the church community that stepped up and helped us, it was just people, just everyday people. Um, and so yeah, I I think for me, I was confused for a really long time because I saw two very, very different sides of America. Um and and yeah, yeah, so I I don't know that I'd call it fraught. I've I've lived a very privileged life in a lot of ways. Um, but it uh you know I've I've also been through my fair share of traumas. Um Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 38:14

So when you came out as non-binary, um you you said that there was a lot of like there was a lot of steps to get there, and when you finally arrived to that conclusion, I'm curious what what happened? What was where was that realization?

SPEAKER_05 38:28

Honestly, for me it was really freeing, I think. Like it's the ability to for me at least to describe myself accurately, at least in my own head, is huge and was huge because for most of my life I felt like I didn't have any real um idea, and I didn't even know where to start because we didn't have this this vocabulary and we didn't have the literacy that uh I would, you know, we get to college and you meet folks that have been in the queer community for most of their life, and they're like they know this in and out, and they know them the rainbow mafia.

SPEAKER_07 39:09

When when did you start thinking you might be non-binary?

SPEAKER_05 39:12

Oof, probably well, so it really started. Like I thought I was trans initially, which non-binary is a member of the trans community, of course. But so I I don't want to take that away, but I I will say uh initially I thought I was um MTF uh trans and and I spent a long time just thinking on that and trying to like resonate with it and figure out who I really was and how my gender identity actually engaged with society and my partner and the people around me. Um and I didn't know anything about non-binary like uh or gender fluidity. Like I I think my first experience with any kind of gender fluidity was actually Ruby Rose, which is like not the the place that you wanted to come from, right? But pretty sure that was it. Um and I I remember seeing things like that and thinking, oh shit, both and it don't have to be this box or this box, I can just be me. Um and that felt a lot more genuine to who I am as an individual. I think that's part of why like pansexuality is always you called to me as well, is that like to me, we're just people, we're just humans. Humans are human all around, people are peopling, and that's that. I don't really care what's going on downstairs. I'm not really interested in most of that. So, you know, uh outside we can make it work with whatever's whatever's going on down there. You can make stuff work, you know. Like I just I think there's a lot of people caught up in a lot of what our bodies are or are not, and I know that we as people, right, like we get that in our own heads too, right? We we all have those things that we see in ourselves and in others, and it's helpful for humans to put each other in boxes because it lets us see things black and white, and it's really easy. Um, but the world isn't black and white, it's a lot of gray, and that gray area is where we thrive. We thrive in the gray, in the challenge, and the uncomfort. Um, and that that's where I found that. Um was it was it was an uncomfortable like time for us, I think. Well, initially the only person I told was Maria, and that was difficult for us because I didn't have the vocabulary to say it how I wanted to say it, and I didn't really know what I was talking about, and it it led to confusion for a time, and I don't know, she helped me through a lot through it. The being able to find those explanations and figure out who I was.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Um I wanna it it's it's a cute story to me. Yeah. So I mean, like, feel free if like at any point you're like, I but um also want to point back, I'm an only child.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

And then all of a sudden, Oh, you had a sibling. Someone was stealing my shoes.

SPEAKER_05 42:14

Oh yeah. I would steal her shoes, like I'm still a cute dress. I'll steal joy. These are her earrings. Yeah, these are her earrings. These are not a compliment, though. Thank you. I love them. My bracelets do too. Her bracelets, absolutely. I steal her things on a fairly big, and I think that was the biggest point of contention. She was like, look, you can do it. That's fine. Get your own shit. I am an only child and I'm not having this.

SPEAKER_07 42:45

And yeah, they're still working on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Well, I mean, like, I had those, I have like a pair of boots that are they're not balanciagas, but you know, like Hardy B is like those Balenciagas the ones that look like socks. And I'm like, your foot is bigger than mine, and you're gonna stretch out my boots.

SPEAKER_05 43:02

I made it work. I made it work. I look good in them. All right.

SPEAKER_04 43:06

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

And then I mean we do have the similar hip sizes, so like Yeah, so I mean that works out.

SPEAKER_05 43:12

That works out.

SPEAKER_06 43:13

Yeah. Sometimes it just kind of works out that way. Yeah. Oh, I'm so jealous. The question kind of sings back around. Like, did how did how did you feel when they came out?

SPEAKER_00 43:24

I mean, at first definitely whenever we like as Finlay was kind of alluding to, I mean, I think we were like what? It was post our child.

SPEAKER_05 43:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

So we were like twenty-three, twenty-four.

SPEAKER_05 43:37

Maybe I think it was a little earlier than that. A little earlier. It was like right when around the same time she was born, so about twenty-two.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Yeah. So I mean it was and the same yeah, we didn't have like the the language around it just yet because I mean we hadn't really left that area where like I said, everything was like either sure or sure. Lesbian, you're gay or you're bisexual, and transgender wasn't really like a word in our vocabulary or non-binary.

SPEAKER_05 44:08

That and the only word I had for gay growing up was a slur, and it was just the one I was called all the time. So like I didn't I didn't have all these other words. And then you grow up and you figure out there's a lot of words for these things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

And I think there was like an initial I mean a shock because like you think, you know, that you've known this person. Like I've, you know, we've known each other since seventh grade. And to, you know, realize that it's different. Not like your world is upended, but there was like a little piece of like how do I wrap my head around this? Do I need to like am I mourning something or am I accepting something new? And I mean ultimately, like that's also the the reason why I always like tell people like, yeah, we've been married since we were 19. Like we have so much growing that we've done together. And yeah, I think like we we got to a place where we really figured out what we were trying to communicate and how we were feeling. And then the the non-PC joke is that I'm like, well, you know, if I'm bisexual and everything's a binary spectrum, then sometimes you're my girlfriend, sometimes you're my boyfriend. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 45:27

And that's fine with me.

SPEAKER_07 45:28

Yeah. Awesome. That's really beautiful. Yeah. So many couples don't make it through.

SPEAKER_05 45:34

Yeah, I think we were always told like the first seven years is the hardest. And like, honestly, every little bit of that, anytime somebody gives you a number on relationships, I feel like is a bit of bullshit because nothing is linear. Healing isn't linear, relationships aren't linear, we're gonna have good times, we're gonna have bad times. It's about how you communicate in those times and if you're able to like work with each other towards a solution, or if you're working against each other, I think. Um, and we've just we've found ways of making it work together. Um, arguably, the thing that makes that work is I went to therapy. Um without that, probably wouldn't be working, and it wouldn't be her fault at all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

I mean, yeah, the dark side of that is that there was a lot of alcoholism.

SPEAKER_05 46:26

Yeah, yeah, there was a bit of that. I definitely had like um I I didn't know how to cope with I think a lot of what it came up with, and I coped with alcohol and things like that. And yeah, I didn't realize how much those I I didn't realize how much I was hurting the people around me until I think it was brought to my attention and then it was uh something that needed to change.

SPEAKER_06 46:50

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Cool. I really I I want to hear more. But we do it in the second question. Oh my god, more questions. This is amazing. I think like it gives us a good idea of like what context kind of things come from. Um, and then that also kind of gives us the next idea of you know, if there was a resource or something that you would want to share with the community, what would you like to share?

SPEAKER_01 47:18

I mean, I think so much.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

Um for for one, I think the resource, and I say this as someone that was on the Salem Kaiser School Board, is that at least in Salem Kaiser School District, your teachers and your counselors can actually be a pretty decent resource. I'm not saying that everybody's an amazing resource, I think, but there are some really amazing people in the system that are working really hard to make sure that folks are able to kind of explore this conversation in a very secure place. Yeah. Hopefully you can get to it without all the trials and tribulations that some of us have had to go through. Um and then in the in the complete self self-serving way.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Um are the the campaign that I'm running. I mean, I'm so glad and excited to be running a campaign to make Marion County different with my colleague Sarah Duncan, especially because like Sarah Duncan has just done so so much amazing work and is so dedicated to the LGBTQIA community and making sure that everyone has a space to be able to go. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:37

So we're we're not we're not gonna glance over that one right there. Here's what's gonna happen. First off, we don't know, like uh the the listener doesn't know who you're running as and or what you're running against. And the second thing is like, why should this matter for a person who's listening to this podcast?

SPEAKER_05 48:56

Okay, girl. Okay, okay, here's just look aside.

SPEAKER_06 49:00

No, no, I just want to note that we are in a room, and as soon as I said that, Maria just kind of stood up straight, put her hands on her hip, and it's ready to be.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

And especially if you are a person seeking support because you are pregnant, or a person seeking support because you are a member of the LGBTQIA community. Like they have systematically removed those services and or created additional barriers in the name of what they believe to be true and what they believe to be right. And as we know, a lot of those times, those things that they believe to be true and believe to be right are antithetical to our existence and our joy and our success. And so Sarah Duncan and I went, we are tired of this. We want to make sure that this changes. And so we are running for Marion County Commissioner against Kevin Cameron and Colm Willis. And we want to make that change and make sure that services are accessible to people. And I think that's just like scratching the surface of it.

SPEAKER_03 50:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

And especially, I mean, like the work. Like I remember the joy on Sarah's face. I know this is supposed to be about me, but um like the joy on Sarah's face whenever she was able to participate in fundraising for an LGBTQIA resource center, like or a place for folks to be able to go here in Salem. And I want to be able to keep that energy and extend it across Marion County, especially to the rural areas. Because I mean, we're just sitting here talking about how we grew up in a fairly rural area and how limited and closed-minded things were and how hard it was. We don't want anybody else to have to go through that.

SPEAKER_06 51:06

Two things. First, New Mexico, you missed out. You messed up, you had a resource, you had two resources in your pocket and you just lost them. So if you're listening, you should feel ashamed of yourself. Yeah. Second part is there's it's kind of a two-part question, is uh like two sides to the same question, but it's why you? Why one, why you as a person, why should I vote for you? But also the second one being, um, and we could probably start with the second one, is if you chose to run, why? You know why not endorse somebody else?

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Oh girl, I tried. Like I I mean, I ran for the Salem Kaiser School Board, I served my four years on that, I'm currently on the board of chariots, the Salem Area Mass Transit District, and I went, I want to spend time with my daughter. My daughter's eight. I'm only gonna have this for at you know, ten more years, then she gets to go on to do whatever else she wants. I mean, she can stay as long as she wants, but you know, in this societally spectrum, um, probably another 10 years. And I don't want to miss it. 42.

SPEAKER_05 52:18

Easily.

SPEAKER_06 52:20

She's not allowed to leave. I mean, with this economy. With this economy?

SPEAKER_00 52:25

She's not yeah. But then I saw no one willing to step to the plate. I mean, I watched Sarah shake all the trees to see who is gonna run for Marion County Commissioner because two years ago we had our Marion County Commissioner run unopposed. And I was like, I will very willingly support people in in this endeavor because it's hard. And I saw no one come to the plate. And even the people that we had previously come to the plate, I mean, they got so burnt on this race because it's hard and people are mean and it's expensive. And yeah, I mean, like why the Latina that has a kid and a full-time job. Um and that's and that's exactly why, because I am the the working families in the community that is out there struggling. I'm not the person that is able to live off of my retirement and do this as another position, or um able to be supplemented by somebody else's income or anything like that. And I mean the benefit is the Marion County Commission is a full-time job. So, you know, in a way, these are people that are definitely working, supposed to be working for us, but that's not what I see. And the people that are up there are not the people that I see when I look in my own house or when I'm walking down the street to go to work. Like they are not necessarily the people that have come into this podcast room and shared their experiences. And I want to make sure that people see that like we can do this. And it's and I mean it's it's so much more beyond that of you know, like that we can make this change, but also like we can do this, you can do this. No matter how hard it feels like it gets, no matter like what lows you're you're suffering through, you you can get to this point where you can be the person that says yes.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

We're going to make sure that we have like gender-affirming care at our county health department.

SPEAKER_00 54:51

Yes, we're going to make sure that folks have access to to resources if if they're pregnant. Yes, we're going to make sure that people can have access to vaccines.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

Because I know what it's like. And I don't want anyone else to have to go without it again.

SPEAKER_07 55:10

So I think your experience as a new mother here was a little bumpy. We can say. Just a bit.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

I mean, I was even though I came here, the first thing I did was I got on OHP.

SPEAKER_05 55:25

OHP is the bomb. Isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 55:27

OHP rules. I'm honestly like best health insurance I've ever had in my life.

SPEAKER_06 55:31

I mean, Oregon, like coming here, you can actually get services right away. Snap, I got it right away, too.

SPEAKER_05 55:37

Yeah, I think moving here with a newborn, we were really worried. We were like worried that New Mexico's was gonna run out and what were we gonna do, and Oregon picked it up like instantly so fast.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

And I mean we can't do that unless there's leaders that are deciding that we continue to fund these programs and support people like that.

SPEAKER_06 55:55

And I I think I want to kind of like sw swing around and and uh Finley, I know um you know, I'm sitting here and I have I have some thoughts that I'd like to share, but I'd love to hear from you first. Um and ask you as a person whose partner is going through this and and a and going through all these things, and I know you know you've been a a board a ch a person on the board of the board of education, right? Um yeah, that's what it was. Um how does it feel like?

SPEAKER_05 56:23

It's weird. It's very weird if I'm being honest. Um it's really weird because um I am as in the bio with three raccoons in a trench coat and um a pink one, a yellow one, and a blue one.

SPEAKER_06 56:37

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 56:38

They're color-coded. It's it's lovely, and uh I I tend to be a little bit I think most people who've met me would I fall into weird niches between like punk and uh queer, and I have all these little weird quirks that make me who I am, right? But um it's strange to find myself in rooms with people on occasion or be talking to like Congress people or like talking to you know city councillors or mayors, and I'm like, how am I in this room? This feels weird. I think they were supposed to stop me at the door, and someone forgot to check the list because I don't think I was supposed to be on it. Um so it is it's weird, um, but it is also uh heartening. It's really, really heartening because I've got to see from the up close personal view of um how much constant labor has gone into improving our communities from people like Maria. I've seen her bust ass just endlessly. It's exhausting, um, both from my perspective and and hers, um, as well as I've seen, you know, the people that she surrounded herself with that um make it their point of uplifting the the community, whether that be the beloved community around the NAACP folks we have here, and they've got a beautiful community, uh, or the Latin population. Like we she's found ways of working with people across the aisle, uh people who I could not sit with and have a normal conversation. She's been able to work with them. I don't know how she does it. Um, it's impressive uh and it's moving to me because yeah, like uh I I don't know that she talks about it much, but I the reason she got into the school board, I think was primarily to kind of fix injustices that I experienced in my life because school was not an easy thing for me. Um and school was a very traumatic experience for me. Um and it it was it was really difficult when my kids started going back to school. I would have panic attacks and I couldn't walk into schools, and it was I the smell of the cleaning supplies was awful. Um and and she went, I'm gonna make sure kids aren't getting hurt that way in our schools. Um, and she did something about it and then just continued to do things. Um, and so it's been really, really inspiring and and amazing and moving to see her take the the issues that people like myself complain about constantly. And we all I think we all know there's so much wrong right now, right? And we're all all of us are pointing the finger at the fire, but not that many of us are carrying water buckets. And I think the people carrying the water buckets, they need more support and they need recognition from time to time that that hey, there are people carrying water buckets. There's a lot of us screaming fire, and we're not wrong, but we need more people carrying water buckets. And I say that as a person who has consistently not carried the water bucket in my life. Um, I try where I can and where I'm able, but I haven't always found that the easiest. And so I when I look at people like Maria and the group of people around her like Sarah Duncan and these women who they're not taking no for an answer anymore. We're not gonna say we're gonna lay down and just let things be bad. They're gonna fix things, they're gonna work on things, and they're not perfect, they're people. Like, they're not gonna walk on day one and everything's fixed and it's all perfect because that's not the way the world works, but they're actually working towards something, and that is something I'm not seeing in the other. I hesitate to say candidates here, but it just in general, like we're not seeing a lot of that in in the public. Not as much as we should. I I I see a lot of people that we're always we're pointing at the fire, but we're not giving enough acknowledgement to so many people out there carrying those water buckets right now. Like we're all looking at everything bad happening in the world, like Minneapolis, right? We're all looking, it's terrible. But there's so many people working to make it better right now. And for me, it's so easy to get caught up in like the everything's burning down, doom scroll sort of mentality. Um, and forget about all those people I'm seeing in those videos, or all the people you might have seen something bad, but you also saw ten helpers, and it's just look for the helpers, and they she's a helper, yeah. And that's it, it feels weird, feels like I'm out of place, and it feels like I'm surrounded by good people and helpers.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

Right. So that was too flowery. I don't do the dishes, they do them all. Don't wash my own laundry, they wash it all. Um, I'm not the parent at the parent teacher conferences, they are. Well, I mean, I have been to most of them. I did have to make one.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:53

He doesn't know. It's all for my own benefit, okay? I'm trying to get that back. And also, just being a good partner is my fetish, okay? I'm just trying to get off here. It has very little to do with you, sweetie. I'm just kidding. You might should cut that part.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:17

Sorry. Um, I, you know, I I'm sitting here and I have never had a conversation that lasted more than 15 words with you, and never had a conversation with you at all. And, you know, in this past hour that we've been chatting, I feel like, you know, I think one of the the the the the the analogies that you just used is that water bucket. That's a really beautiful. I love that. Like everybody is yelling fire, and only a few of us are carrying the water bucket. And I think, you know, I am have never been involved in politics at all until what's been happening, it has been happening. So they're pulling us out of the sides, kicking and screaming, and they're making us get active. And so it's like, as you listen to this, uh, as an audience member, please don't listen and think that we had already known these individuals and chatted with them and we've already kind of made an agreement. Everything that you have just learned, I just learned myself. Same with Tallow. Um, and we are looking at two individuals who are trying to do something better in some way or another. I I do want to kind of lead into the next the next question, which is our final question, and I think I kind of have an idea of where this is gonna go. But what resource or what need do you think our community has?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

I feel like I've led this conversation so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:38

No, I feel like I've been talking way too much. You gotta talk more. I mean uh somebody say something. Um, just there's so many things that need to be done, but I could list off like wish list stuff. Like, there's so many projects that have been experimentally done throughout many, many different metropolitan areas. Like um, I think that there needs to be broken windows initiatives in every city across the country. Uh, are you are you guys familiar with broken windows initiatives? Okay, lovely. Um, I think those need to be constant, vigilant thing that communities are doing. I think that public art programs uh are ways that the broken windows theory can be used and applicable in ways where you're just generally getting a happier populace. I think you've seen cities. Um I cannot remember the name of the town that did it recently, but there's a town that um planted like fruit trees all over the place and it lowered the temperature by three degrees, and on top of that, now you just have fruit trees. Um yeah, I want that kind of stuff. If I'm being I'm a wishlist person, I'm like rip up all the allergen-producing plants and put the fruit trees back. No more cottonwoods. Yes. Um, and and the one that I've been championing for years now has was Kahoots, but Cahoots is no longer active in um Eugene. But we just recently started up a program here that is very similar, and I think that what is Cahoots? Cahoots was a non um uh there sorry, you probably explain this a little bit better than me. Go for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:27

I mean you brought it up, but it's a program to support folks um that instead of having a police response, especially when folks are having like a mental health crisis, that there's actually like mental health professionals. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:39

Dispatch the Yeah, didn't Salem first start one?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:45

Yeah, that's it's in the uh mental uh mental crisis unit or something. Yeah, mental health crisis unit. Um yeah, and uh I think they're in kind of the first stages of getting that up and going in Salem. Um but again A big proponent of that for years. Um, I don't think um the there are a lot of places in our communities where police officers I think could be more than welcome to exercise their their duties as uh but at places where people are having mental health crises actively, they have no place there. Uh we need mental health professionals there. We don't need police officers. And most police officers you would speak to would agree with you. They're not trained for that. That's not their job. They shouldn't be doing it. Um, but because of a significant lack um of both like logistical planning and um infrastructure, as well as just um a kind of attitude that I think the states has in general, that they if we throw more money at the police, they can just kind of handle everything. And that's not a solution. Um they without getting into you know my opinions or anyone's opinions on police, they're overworked. Categorically, they have too much to do. Um and that one of the biggest things that that comes into play there is mental health crisis calls. And like for instance, last year they shot um uh last year police officers uh killed 116 individuals who called for help when they called uh they called for help with a mental health crisis. Um and that shouldn't be happening anywhere. Not even one. Not one should be happening. Um for records here, the entire country of Britain killed three people last year in police actions. Three. We killed closer to sixteen hundred. So it is something I'm really, really passionate about is just getting people the help they need in that regard, is it's uh having the proper training to de-escalate those types of situations or to to be able to talk to someone in that moment is a skill, and it's not the same one police officers have, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it is a change, I think, and really, really needs to be made. And I'm happy to see Salem on the way to making that, but I'm also keenly aware because we had it in Eugene for years, and it's not there anymore, and so it goes away really fast. Um, and even though it was uh Eugene's Kahoots program was actually internationally recognized uh and nationally recognized uh for its efforts, um, not only its efforts, but its actual um success success. Like they could sit and put numbers on a board and they could show that this was helping in cases of police brutality, it was helping in pla cases of excessive use of force, as well as not putting officers in a position they shouldn't have found themselves in in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:12

Yeah, all my policies just come from Finley's rants.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:15

I rant a lot, and I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

No, it's great.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:20

Is there anything you'd like to address? You're good at yelling fire.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

I mean, definitely very similar vein, um, and especially because right now our current Marion County commissioners are making all of Oregon less safe because we have a wonderful law that was passed in the eighties called a sanctuary law. And Marion County commissioners said they're really unclear with this law that has existed from the eighties, and so they filed a lawsuit and it's to try to undermine the sanctuary law. And what the sanctuary law is protects you and your information from federal overreach. It prevents our local police from being able to provide resources to federal agents. And any time that our local entities are having to dedicate time to federal government work is time that they're not dedicating to our community. And so we need to make sure that we're protecting our our people.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:23

Oh, there's a boson. Finley. Maria, our time here is up.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:29

Thank you both. It's uh so good to talk to talk to you. Please tell us where in the sea we can find you.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:36

I'm Maria for Oregon. That's the number four on all socials and website Maria4Oregon.com.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:44

Probably somewhere near Bermuda. I don't want to be found. Well, that's very mysterious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:52

So if you're listening to this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. And uh you can support us on Patreon via the Crafty Coyotes, no space in between words.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:02

So on your way out, if you can put put in a good word with the captain, that'd be so nice. Did you hear something just then?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:10

I thought I heard something on the way up.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:14

I thought I've been talking to you this whole time. Me too.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:16

Oh my god. Good conversation.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:18

And remember, Salem, even when the Caesar choppy, voice your colors.