WEBVTT - Fascism Comes for a New Mexico School Board 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.160 Welcome back to It Could Happen Here, the show about 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.360 things not being great and maybe trying to make them better. UM. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.080 I'm Robert Evans. Uh. This week we got we have 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.880 a special, little, little little episode for you. UM, I'm 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.680 gonna sit down and talk with Lucas Herndon. Um. Lucas, 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.360 you are from New or you live in New Mexico 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.920 at least, um, and you wanted to talk to me 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.600 a bit about some stuff that's going on in your 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.600 school boards. We just did a two parter on fascist 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.160 attempts to kind of take over and dominate school boards 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.800 around the country, and you've got some personal experience with that, 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:38.760 so I wanted to kind of just turn this over 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.720 to you to start us off. Yeah, thanks for Robert, 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:44.800 thanks for having me on the show. Um. Yeah, my 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.240 name is Lucas and I live in mos Cruces, New Mexico, 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.400 which is in the southern part of the state. Were 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.600 close to the border for people that are interested. Um, 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.400 and yeah, like you know that my experience had happened 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.840 last week is sort of the quintessential It could happen 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:06.840 here exactly. LUs LUs Cruses Um, politically speaking, is actually 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.240 a very progressive little town I mean in general, New 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.679 Mexico has been for what you know, however you consider 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.000 the progressive or not is has been blue for quite 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.120 a while. Is in terms of like voting like it's 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:24.679 not it's not like Texas politically at least, right that's yeah, exactly, Yeah, 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.600 we voted for we voted for Bush the first time, 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.080 but have voted blue every election since two thousands four. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.400 Like federally, so in my little stretch of the of 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.360 the state, our congressional district has been read. But the 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.759 city of Los Cruces, which is the like where the 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:43.520 biggest city in the southern part of the state, where 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.480 the second biggest city in the state. UM, our city 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.360 council has not only been democratic, but like progressively democratic. 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.480 UM we have UM. As of this recent election. You know, 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:57.920 from the beginning of November, we now have an all 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.880 female city council. UM there is at least we have 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:08.400 UM one one if not too trying to think. Sorry, 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.919 Currently there are two UM folks on the city council 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.880 have immigrated from Mexico in their life. UM one will 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:19.160 still be on. One is now running for congress. UM 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.919 we have UM. The school board that currently is sitting 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.840 is generally progressive, and the one we just elected, we 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.680 just elected our first openly queer person onto that school board. UM. 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.519 Our little group of of legislators that go up to 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.120 Santa Fe every year is very progressive. So again, just 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.840 to kind of reiterate, like Las Cruces, New Mexico, pretty 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.840 progressive little place, and yet at the school board meeting 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:48.519 last week, UM, totally dominated by a public attendance of 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:54.000 very far right extremists, UM, spouting all kinds of nonsense 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.400 about all kinds of things. So yeah, it was pretty 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.600 well yeah, and this, I mean, this has happened. This 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.560 happened in Portland, Oregon too, which is also famously I 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.600 don't know, I wouldn't call Portland politics progressive but solidly democratic. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.560 In the school board meeting gets taken over by by 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.160 far right activists. This is a yeah. So when did 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.120 you kind of first become aware of this? Well? So, 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.360 UM it was it was a weird convergence of my 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.000 personal and my and my private or I'm sorry, my 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:27.239 personal and my professional life where I UM, I work 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.680 for an organization called progress Now in Mexico. So it's 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:34.360 like I do progressive politics for a living, but um, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.480 and a colleague who works for the a c LU 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.360 here had asked if I would go and help lend 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.080 support to this gender inclusion policy that the school board 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.360 was going to be um commenting on. They weren't voting 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.200 on it. That day. It was what's called the first reading, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.520 and she asked if I could go and if I could, 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.320 you know, just speak, and I was like, yeah, absolutely, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:55.480 be happy too. So I was gonna go and and 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.720 talk about this in a I'm sorry professional capacity. And 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.760 then and that day, um, as like before I went 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.160 to that, my daughter, who's in middle school, texted me 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:11.680 a picture a bunch of kids had on Monday of 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.640 of last week, which was like trans Awareness Week or 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:19.240 Transvisibility Week. Some kids had shown up wearing trans flags 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.239 and pride flags on that Monday. The following day, that Tuesday, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.880 some kids showed up wearing UM thin blue line flags 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:32.520 in in response like indirect response um and in my daughter, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:34.200 and you know, my daughter is aware enough to know 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.640 what that means. So she texted me and was like 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.160 I can't believe this ship and I was like I know. UM, 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.040 So then I'm like right, So then I'm like, okay, well, 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.080 now I want to go speak about this gender inclusion 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:48.960 bill or policy personally right like now like has impacted me. Um, 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.680 So I show up at uh, you know, about an 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.160 hour before the meeting is supposed to start. Because the 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.599 third thing that kind of happened was that I, um, 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.680 I am, I'm on like a bunch of ailing lists 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:05.720 because of my job. And sure enough, the local gop um, 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:07.919 who is not very active because again they kind of 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.520 lose all the time, they sent out a like come 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.760 show up at this thing, you know email. So I 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.200 showed up early, thinking okay, well I want to see 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.359 if there's going to be something. And at first I 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:19.960 was like, oh, like I don't think they showed up. 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.479 I don't think that they turned out that's good. But 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.360 it turns out they were all like hiding in their 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.240 cars so that they could like swarm the building at once. 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.479 And so then like about half an hour before the meeting, 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:33.760 they all walked in at once, and like I was 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.080 already sitting inside the room and they all came in 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:37.720 at once, and they took over all the chairs. They 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:42.320 was standing room only. Um to the point where like 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.080 the there was a bunch of f f A kids 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.000 that were there that was supposed to be recognized for 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.520 you know, f A something or other, and like they 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.640 had to kick some people out so that they weren't 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.760 violating the fire code. Um. But that's how many. Yeah. 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.039 So anyway, that's kind of how it all. That's the 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.599 setting for where this all happened. Um. It turns out 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.040 that at the same meeting there was gonna be a 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.400 policy discussion on a different policy that had to do 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:13.640 with New Mexico's revision of Social studies standards. Um. And 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.600 of course that got everybody hot and bothered about so 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:21.680 called c RT, which isn't a thing. But so like 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.520 they were there, but I mean, but the folks that 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:25.039 showed up to speak, I mean, they were all over 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.440 the place. They were talking about critical race theory. They 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:30.160 were talking about the Gender Inclusion Bill, and like trans 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.600 violent the myth of trans violence and um. But then 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.240 of course like like COVID protocols and all kinds of 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.320 I mean just again like way out their stuff. Um. 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.679 And actually kind of funny. I was listening to Knowledge 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.520 Fight this morning, and uh, Jordan and Dan really hit 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.479 on it that like they have just figured out that 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.680 these are places they can go and yell at like 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.120 no one you know, like school board people aren't gonna 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.120 like they're all just these are all just like teachers, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:57.960 like retired teachers who are on these school boards, and 0:06:57.960 --> 0:06:59.760 they're like they're not there to just you know, have 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:02.800 the is like whatever discussions, so they're not gonna you know, 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.680 they just like let these people yell and they did. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.839 So anyways, it got it got heated, uh pretty quickly 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.800 because I mean again, these people just like go off 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.840 and they get they riled themselves up and those lots 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.160 of applause and anyway, that's kind of how it all started, 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.520 I guess, or that's what it was. And I mean, 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.680 has has there have you noticed kind of any sort 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.520 of mobilization in the community now that this has happened, 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.240 because it seems like the first ones of these, at 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.080 least always take everybody by surprise. People are not used 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.040 to still not really used to school board meetings being 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.640 um shall I say interesting, um, certainly important, but like 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.640 not a thing that you have to really be concerned 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.120 about for the most part. And that's that's changing. Have 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:46.040 you seen the community kind of start to adapt to that? Yeah, 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.720 you know, since so you know, I put some content 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:53.520 out on my you know, local Twitter. Um and and 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.239 and um got some traction there things to sort your retweet, 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.240 I think. But um, but then the biggest thing was 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.280 that kind of going back to what had happened at 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.280 my daughter's school, that progress that got worse, if you will. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.480 The following day, the Wednesday of last week, some kids 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.480 showed up in an actual Confederate stars and bars flag, um, 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:21.240 which is yeah, that's nuts. Famed Confederate state New Mexico. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.440 You know Messia, New Mexico, which is right down the 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.480 road was it was the capital of the Confederate territory. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.320 But yeah, but it wasn't a state at that point. 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.640 It was not a state. And I'm not aware of 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:38.800 with their battles in New Mexico. And I know we 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:41.760 had some in like further south Texas than you would think, 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:43.920 but I was not there any There's a couple there 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.839 was one of famously up north called the Battle of Glorietta, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.600 and then um, and then there was one here where 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.640 I live. Wasn't a battle. It was a bunch of 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.880 Confederates got um stranded and super drunk, and then I 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.960 couldn't cross the desert fast enough, so they got stranded 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:00.960 up in the mountains that if they called Baylor Canyon 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.559 and then they get to the top and like the 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:06.720 North was just sitting there like waiting for them and 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:11.080 was like, well, you're captured now, we'll see. That's clearly 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:17.800 that's some history worth celebrating right there. I think that 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.600 the biggest, like one of the scariest but biggest things 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.439 is like and this goes towards the This is a 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.400 slight tangent, but like the social studies revision, for instance, 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.640 in the state of New Mexico. Uh, there are two 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.320 paragraphs in our history book about the Gaston Purchase. Um 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.920 like I live in the chunk that is the guest 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:42.000 and Purchase, and um, like the guests and Purchase is 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:45.760 like James Gaston was a notorious racist who left the 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.880 South and took all of his railroad money, went to 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:52.920 California and Mexico, lobbying hard, using his influence and money 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.600 to try to create a slave state in Baja in Mexico. 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.520 Like that's what he was trying to do, and like 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.960 that part of that, part of the context of why 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.440 the guests and Purchase even happened, is like totally left 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.559 out of history books. And it's like if anywhere should 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.319 be taught. It should be taught in the place that 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.400 is called the guests and purchase when it comes to 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.200 the United States. So anyway, just a little tangent there 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.360 why it's important to have context in history. Um so 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.800 sorry going back to my daughter's school and these kids 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:27.120 wearing the stupid stars and bars so um that. So, 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.560 like I went and spoke to the assistant principle and 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.520 was like, so, I understand that your answer to this 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.800 was to ban all flats and he was like and 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:38.839 he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they're causing a 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.320 disruption to education. And I was like, yeah, but I 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:43.640 you know, I think I feel like you're giving a 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.280 false equivalency to like, you know, gender and and pride 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:53.120 acknowledgment to verslag. Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's this constant. 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.080 This has happened in a couple of places, including a 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.800 town in Oregon, where it's like this is sort of 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.640 the the centrist and kind of the right wing solution 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.800 to this. It's just that like, well, if if kids 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:07.079 can't wear racist hate flags, then gay kids can't wear 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.240 a flag that says that their existence is valid. Uh, 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.480 you know, because those are the same thing. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.160 it's frustrating. It is frustrating. So that was not my 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.760 favorite thing. Um. And so then the culmination of that 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.400 this week was that my daughter's social studies teacher, who 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.760 had allowed the kids in her class to make little 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:33.120 paper flags after the real flags were banned, um, was 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:38.240 fired Jesus Christ. And because it's a personnel matter, no 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:40.760 one is willing to tell me more. I've I've called 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.040 the president of the school school board, who actually, in 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.520 all fairness, he doesn't actually probably have that much sway 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.760 over these kinds of things. I would imagine that happened 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.920 at a level, a level that was not his. But yeah, yeah, 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.120 but I mean, but I but I have anyway, so 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.320 I did call him. I also called the school and 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:01.079 got very little information from them, obviously, so you who knows. 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.200 But again, like that's how it was perceived from the 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:09.000 kids in her class, um. And that's so like what 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.559 we know happened is that we know that after the 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.680 flags got banned, she let kids make flags out of 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.440 paper and hang them up, and by Friday she was gone. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:22.199 So like not a great response, no not not not ideal? 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.880 Not ideal? Yea, yeah, So anyway, that's kind of where 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.000 we left at. But I guess maybe what maybe what 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:29.880 I should say to get back to your original question, 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.920 which is to say, like, have we seen a mobilization 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.000 that Yeah, Like so I learned the newspaper the reporter 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:41.080 who that teacher like a couple of weeks ago, had 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:46.720 actually been in the newspaper because she had also like um, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.800 she she spearheaded this like response like a support, like 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.040 a girl who wore her job to school had been bullied, 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.240 and like when news got around in the school, like 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.640 the like the majority of the student body, and this 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.840 team sure like went up and above out of their 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.880 way to make her feel welcome and like walk her 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:07.640 to her class, and like it we got kind of 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.199 viral on local TikTok. So like this teacher got quoted 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.560 in the newspaper. So I like called them. I called 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.680 the rapport. I tweeted the newspaper and I was like, like, 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:17.960 you guys know that the teacher who was in like 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:22.559 startlet in your article is fired for allowing kids to 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.040 waste their thoughts about these flags things, right, And they 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:26.320 were like no, we didn't know, And I was like 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.800 you should probably find so, so you know, I don't 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.040 know where we're gonna be at now. The next reading 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:38.199 for the gender Inclusion Policy is UM December, so we've 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.040 got a couple of weeks before that next school board meeting. UM. 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.160 I think that on my end, like there's gonna be 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.880 some local organizing to try to get some better, more 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.360 inclusive voices to be a part of things. UM. I 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.200 don't you know, I don't know what the interim will 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.360 hold UM, because it's like, you know, it's the holidays 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.000 and there's a lot going on and Kyle written how 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.360 else and build black better? I mean, there's like, you know, 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.000 there's always a million things happening, so it'll you know, 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.080 there will have to be some drum beating to like 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:08.800 get people to show up to that. But on the 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.520 other hand, I think with some of the momentum we 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.800 have and I think people will show up in Mass 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.320 for the fourteenth UM in support at least this is 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.360 the kind of community that in general we have shown 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.760 up and shown out to support, you know, these kinds 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:26.480 of issues in the past. But I do think that 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:40.400 up until now people felt for pretty asleep about it. Yeah, 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.400 I mean, and hopefully you do see the kind of 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.480 response you're expecting can you walk me through sort of 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:50.320 how the kind of attempts like you talked about getting 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.640 the local media aware of what had happened to that teacher. Um, 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.520 how are people like what does the actual organizing effort 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:58.080 look like on the ground, Like, how are you trying? 0:14:58.120 --> 0:14:59.880 How are you and others trying to get the word 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:03.960 out so that you know there's a response to this. Yeah, 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:09.080 so I think that, Um, the first thing is is 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:15.040 that there was there was a problem with the way 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.480 that the school board handled public comment that first time. 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.840 In an attempt to help limit their own sort of 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.120 exposure to some of the toxic stuff they knew was 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:31.080 coming their way, they had they had instituted a limit 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:35.440 on public comment. Um, you had to show up by 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:37.480 a certain time and fill out these little pieces of 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:39.560 paper saying that you were there to comment about something, 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:41.560 and if you weren't there, then you couldn't sign up. 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.600 And the problem was was that all these like old 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:49.960 white male retirees who are sitting around listening to Alex 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.680 Jones all day, they had nothing better to do than 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.160 show up to this meeting at three o'clock in the afternoon, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.720 whereas a bunch of for instance, teachers students parents, Um, 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:01.880 they were busy because they were in school or like 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.120 picking their kids up from school. UM. So I think 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:06.520 one of the things that we're going to try to 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.840 do is get public comment ahead of time, and we're 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.640 gonna try to like bombard the not bombard that's that's 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:15.640 a violent word. But we're gonna try to like just 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.480 make sure that UM voices from the community that hadn't 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.520 been represented are represented and sent to the school board 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.000 ahead of time. UM. I think we're gonna try to 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.080 go and save physical space ahead of time for those 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:29.600 of us that can write, for those of us that 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.120 can will go and we'll try to save physical space. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.480 And we did learn that even if they keep that 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.600 policy for the little forms, we can UM, we can 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.360 actually give that time. We can fill out other people's names, right, 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.040 So we're gonna try to like make sure that we 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.720 have better voices. That was one of the things if 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:47.440 you listen to the recording of what I said at 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.920 that meeting, UM, I asked the school board president if 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.600 it's possible for me to yield my time because it 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:57.120 had literally been like a dozen white men out there 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.440 spouting nonsense. And then I get up there and I'm like, yeah, hey, um, 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.040 we've heard from enough white men. Can we have like 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.240 a member of the trans community or one of the 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.000 women of color who are here to talk about this, um, 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.720 but couldn't get here in time and there they're legal 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:13.520 team was like, oh no, like you didn't sign up 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.919 in time or whatever. So um, but it turns out 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.159 we could have put their names down ahead of time. 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.560 So we're gonna try to organize that thing so that 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.760 people can show up and save you know, physical space. Um. 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.000 And then UM, I think the other thing too is 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.000 to try to involve some other local elected officials from 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.520 the county and city level, because again we have these 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.920 really amazing progressive candidates who have come from all walks 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.119 of life, including immigrants and members of you know, l 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:43.000 g B, t q A community. UM. So having them 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.920 come and speak in their official capacity UM, I think 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.280 will carry a lot of weight um for the both 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.199 for the school board but also just for the public 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.520 to hear from those voices. Yeah, where are these like? 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:58.600 Have you have you gotten any kind of research on 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.880 where the people showing up are coming from? Are these 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.760 like folks within your community or these people coming from 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.320 kind of outlying areas um to swarm these meetings, Like 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.280 is there is there kind of an active research contingent. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:13.520 I mean, that's part of what I do. It's part 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.800 of part of my job with Progress now in Mexico. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.119 My my title is Energy Policy Director. I usually spend 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.200 most of my day talking about oil and gas stuff. However, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.080 I've been doing this job long enough that before I 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.520 became that person, I was actively researching and tracking a 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.800 lot of white supremacy activity in the in the state, 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.359 especially along the border, some of the border militia stuff 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.560 a couple of years back. So in that regard, I knew, 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.680 and I knew a number of these folks. A lot 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.120 of them do live in the city, but so our 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.800 our county is considered rural by the census, even though 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.280 we're a city of a hundred thousand people. But we're 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.400 a big county. So there's there's two people here, so um, 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.120 so there's you know, it's it's hard to tell how 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.640 many people may or may not have lived in, for instance, 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.480 the public school district. But what I can tell you, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.000 like hands down, is that of those dozen folks that 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.919 spoke before I did, like, there's no way that at 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.280 least I mean, maybe one or two of them had 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.000 kids that could have gone through the last CRUSES public 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.639 school system, but like the majority of them far and away, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.800 like either aren't from here at all, or you know, 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.320 they've lived here for a long time, but they are 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.920 They are not active parents or even grandparents of kids 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:26.879 that live and we'll go to school in this in 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:31.240 this district. They're just they're just agitated right wingers. Yeah, 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.520 and it's how does this all tie in? Because New 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.720 Mexico has had I think it's kind of been on 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.000 the back burner in terms of like national attention, But 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.840 y'all have had some really significant dust stops, not just 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:42.960 with you know, the border militias. For years there have 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.639 been violent um acts and even murders as the result 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:50.159 of that stuff going on. But like during last year's 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.560 the protests over George Floyd's murder, y'all had some really 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.399 ugly who shall be the dueling rallies were like right 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:02.800 wingers shot at people um and some really some nasty situations. 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.639 I'm wondering, are like those folks, like are you seeing 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.160 that kind of organization being brought into the school board 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.840 meeting or is this just kind of bubbling up as 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:16.800 part of the same stew it is. Yeah, there, it's 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.320 loosely affiliated for sure. UM. And and the crossover, the 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.399 crossover is hard to tell. Depend I mean, what am 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.440 I trying to say? There's there is crossover. It's hard 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.160 to tell how on purpose it is or sort of 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.920 the fact that this is like a small population community states, right. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.080 So what I what I mean by that is that 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.719 some of the some of the physical white supremacists who 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:48.480 showed up last year at one of our um BLM 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:54.080 support you know, George Floyd related peaceful protests, who they 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.080 showed up at a parking lot across the street, you know, armed, 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:01.440 long guns, tech vests, all that kind of stuff. Who 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.040 that those were the folks that when I when I 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.639 went and filmed them and put them on blast to 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.159 to try and sort of out them as best we 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.040 possibly could or at least identify them. Um, they came 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:18.240 back and ducked me. As And then when after a 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.359 number of my colleagues up north in Albuquerque, that was 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.080 about a week before there was the there was a 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:27.960 shooting of a of a UM anti fascist protester in Albuquerque, 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.199 and and it was during sort of all of that 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.320