Beaches Closed, Carbon Credits, County Dems Election Strategy

Speaker 1: 00:00 Despite seeing some sunny weather, not much was happening in the waters off imperial beach. This memorial day, the whole of the city's shoreline was closed as a week's long south. Bay Beach closure was extended this weekend. The culprit as usual fouled water from runoff flowing from the Tijuana Valley. The rainy weather. This may has increased the amount of sewage flowing into the Pacific Ocean over the weekend. Imperial Beach residents with stop the poop signs protested. The ongoing beach closure problem. And joining me is surge to Dina. He's mayor of imperial beach and may or did. Dana, welcome. Thanks for having me. This problem has been going on for a long time. How bad would you say it's gotten now? Speaker 2: 00:42 Oh, everything's just gotten a lot worse. Exponentially worse this spring. And we've just had a series of nonstop sewage spills since April. In addition to new sources of sewage that are being dumped on the beach, south of the border fence from playas to Tijuana down to Rosarito. So what we see now when we have what are called south swells, a serves coming from the south and south wind is that's pushing up the sewage. And uh, last week we had the polluted pollution all the way up to cornetto on silver strand state beach was closed. So, um, it's just getting worse and we're really concerned about the summer, but we're really concerned about is the lack of action by on the part of the Mexican and US governments to do anything to help us. Speaker 1: 01:22 So you're saying the problem has gotten worse? Speaker 2: 01:25 Absolutely. We're seeing so many spills happen so often, um, from the Tijuana River valley to six canyons and then the main two you want to river channel as well as what's going on to beach that were, you know, frankly freaked out and were desperate. Speaker 1: 01:39 How has this affected these beach closures, how they affect it, IB in terms of tourism and the, and your economy? Speaker 2: 01:46 You know, our economy is never good in imperial beach, so we're just recovering. You know, we have some hotels, we're getting tourists, but it's really more of the health and psychic and sort of impact and social impact that imperial beach and surrounding community our entire life is at the beach in imperial beach. We are a low income city. That's where families go to enjoy the best days of their life. So when they can't go and when people can't surf or fish or are the strollers side moms can't work out in the navy. Seals can't work out because it's polluted. That destroys the fabric of our community. We don't want people hanging out in bars. We want people hanging out at the beach exercising. So it's a, it takes a huge toll on our city. And uh, I can't spend the time I need to spend on making sure our working class and middle class families have access to the same resources that the rest of San Diego does. Like, you know, a swimming pool or a parks and rec department or paved streets, paved alleys, a cross walks and sidewalks, more economic developments. We have more access to healthy food. If I'm spending all my time trying to stop people from dumping toxic waste on us. Speaker 1: 02:46 What's it been like living with this situation, these beach closures and this fouling in the South Bay. Speaker 2: 02:51 So if you live in San Ysidro, south San Diego, a corn on or IB, you're just, you're dealing with this issue of where you have this resource that should be the greatest source of joy becoming a source of fear. So this morning, my buddy Andrew called me, he, I've known him since he was a kid. He's got two little kids now and he's concerned about the junior lifeguard program, uh, in imperial beach. He's not surfing in imperial beach anymore. His buddies are saying, come up to North County and surf with me like we're environmental refugees. Unconcerned about the impact of on air quality in San Ysidro. We're going to start looking and see if we can get air monitors to monitor for fecal coliform in the air because of what's going on in the Tijuana River valley right there. So things are really bad scripts as monitoring air quality and imperial beach, but it's just gotten worse. Speaker 2: 03:32 But more it reminds you the hepatitis crisis, the folks who can do the most are doing a lease. So the county of San Diego has not joined the lawsuit. They need to. We need daily testing and our beaches, the city of Cornetto, one of the wealthiest cities in the world that has been impacted by this issue is not doing enough. They need to join a lawsuit. Well, this morning I asked, I talked to Alejandro, so tell us Elise, the awesome new mayor of national city. If we can figure out a way to have her join her city, join our lawsuit and a no cost national city will join the lawsuit. But right now the city of San Diego. Thank you Kevin Faulkner and driven Mareno in the entire city of San Diego Council, the state of California. Thank you. Governor Newsome, uh, the city of Chula Vista. Thank you mayor solace and the entire city council of Chula Vista and the port of San Diego in the Surf Rider Foundation have joined our lawsuit. Speaker 2: 04:16 It's not enough. Everybody needs to jump on board to help us because we're being poisoned and, and, and, and everybody in San Diego seems to think it's okay. What's the status of the lawsuit at this point? So we're apparently prepared to go to federal court for the main hearing. I think the federal government tried to settle with us than a settlement offer was dropped. The lawsuit, we're not going to do anything about it. So there was like a godfather style offer, like drop the lawsuit and that's it. There wasn't even the offer of doing anything at all. Like it's, it's absolutely crazy that in 2019 I'm just, I have to beg the federal government not to allow people to dump toxic waste on us. It's ironic that in Goat Canyon where there's toxic waste flown under the border and literally making border patrol agents ill, the federal government, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in building a new border fence that we didn't need on top of another new border fence. Speaker 2: 05:07 And yet not spending any money to clean up this toxic waste in Mexico is not off the hook. I'll be in Los Cabos, uh, next week for this North American mayors summit. Hopefully have a chance to meet with President Lopez Obrador and the Foreign Minister Marcello, um, you Barton to talk about this. Mexico needs to get onboard and spend money to fix our sewer system. There's not another city and beach city in Mexico and I know all of them that is dumping raw sewage in the water, like Tijuana is back to one of those. So what are you going to ask them to do? Spend money and fixed the problem? We need to eliminate the 30 million, 30 to 40 million gallons a day of pumped up on Dennis was being discharged into the ocean. We need to stop the discharge of 25 million gallons of sewage in the Tijuana River every day. That's where our biggest source. Speaker 2: 05:54 We need to fix all the collector pipes that are broken. We need to make sure there's a system in which people are punished for dumping toxic waste and sewage on imperial beach, but also fouling beaches from ply as a Tijuana Rosarito beach. Um, but it's important to understand that imperial beach and all the other cities that have and the state that have joined us along the surf rider foundation shouldn't be on our own. The county needs to step up to the plate. The county has done almost nothing to help us. We need beach testing fulltime and cornetto again, a city laden with millionaires with millions of dollars in the bank. Tons of money has done almost nothing to help us. And their beaches are almost as polluted as ours. So it's not fair that imperial beach has left holding the bag. We spent the most amount of money to address us. We're now broke, uh, the counties increasing our, our sheriff costs by $800,000 for the next two years. You know, 55% of our households are low income and imperial beach. So that means that's less money for parks and rec. And, and frankly, I'm spending all my time focused on this because our partners in the federal government and the Trump administration have decided that it's dropped dead. Imperial Beach. There's nothing we can do to help you. Speaker 1: 07:02 I've been speaking with Imperial Beach Mayor Search Dudina asserts. Thanks. Thank you so much. San Diego county supervisor, Greg Cox had this response to the South Bay sewage problem. His statement reads in part quote, at this time, the county is not prepared to sue, but as keeping all legal options on the table, I continue to believe that a truly comprehensive multistep approach is needed to end this problem. That's why we have been working on a parallel track to pressure the administration to identify and fund solutions to address the situation once and for all. End Quote Speaker 3: 07:36 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 At a time when the Trump administration is scaling back environmental protections. California continues as a leader in battling climate change. Well now California is considering expanding the state's carbon offset program. Polluters would be allowed to further compensate for their access emissions by paying to preserve the Amazon rainforest. But the benefits of this plan are far from certain, according to an extensive report by Propublica as part of coverage from the KPBS climate change desk pro public. Our reporter Lisa Song spoke to KPBS round table host Mark Sauer to explain, Speaker 2: 00:36 we'll start with the idea behind letting companies buy carbon credits. How's the program supposed to benefit the environment? Protect a vital Amazon rain forest, for example. Speaker 3: 00:45 So the general idea is if you can pay someone in a tropical country to not cut down some trees that they were planning to cut down, then the avoided carbon emissions from that can be used to compensate for someone else across the world who is emitting some amount of carbon dioxide as usual, maybe from a factory or an oil refinery. And the idea is that if you can provide a cheap option for companies to reduce their carbon, then perhaps doing this, you could offset your carbon footprint and help protect vital ecosystems at the same time. Speaker 2: 01:25 So it's attractive to the companies because they don't have to make, say, a major capital investment to get down to where they need to be. Speaker 3: 01:31 Right? It's a way to let countries or companies or corporations find a cheap solution to help reduce some of their greenhouse gases. Speaker 2: 01:39 All right. And, and it all sounds like a great idea, but in your piece you conclude carbon credits haven't and won't deliver the climate benefit that they promise. Explain how you came to that conclusion. Speaker 3: 01:48 So there's actually been decades of research on scientific uncertainties and problems with carbon offset credits in general. And that's not just these kinds of avoided deforestation offsets, but other types as well. And in more recent years, as these types of forestry offsets have taken off, there's been more research talking about the problems with them. That comes down to scientific issues like uncertainties in measuring the amount of carbon bound up in a forest. I, it also comes down to some fundamental problems such as to prove that your offset is real. You have to show that the money you're getting for the offset is the one thing that's the reason why you are not cutting down the forest. So this becomes a very tricky cause and effect scenario because how do we know the people didn't cut down the forest because of these carbon offsets and not because of some other overlapping conservation program in their state or country or maybe because of a drop in the price of beef or soy, which would then lower the demand for cutting down trees. Speaker 2: 02:57 So the cause and effect is really murky then. Speaker 3: 02:59 Yeah, the cause and effect is really murky but and really hard to prove. But in order for an offset to be real, it has to be traced back to an actual cause and effect. Speaker 2: 03:08 And you say the carbon credit projects are worse than doing nothing. Why is that? Speaker 3: 03:13 Well, the idea is if you have a carbon offset project that isn't offsetting all of the carbon it claims it is, then you have a situation where somebody who paid for the offsets has released the amount of carbon dioxide they were going to. But there's this additional CO2 that is not being accounted for because of the problems on the other side with the offset. So you've actually increased the amount of co two in the air and you're not accounting for that increase. Speaker 2: 03:42 So how to proponents of carbon credit programs respond to the findings in your reporting? Speaker 3: 03:47 Uh, well they're not very happy. I think that there's sort of two different types of of responses. There are the people who support the smaller types of carbon offset projects. The ones run by NGOs or some corporations, they tend to operate at a smaller scale. They're saying the small scale projects really work and you know, you haven't given us enough credit. And then there are the people on a different side who are really working on the bigger statewide or net net nationwide programs of these type. Like the one we visited, an awkward Brazil who are saying, well, the problems with the small scale projects are well known. They've long been documented. You shouldn't talk about them in the same story as when you talk about the big government run programs because they're much better. So you know, there is some internal disagreement because there are different sides and different types of people who support different types of these offset programs and projects. Speaker 2: 04:45 And you visited the project in Brazil, it's seen as a shining example of the success of carbon credits, uh, programs. Uh, what was your takeaway from that visit? Speaker 3: 04:53 So the program we visited in Brazil is in a state called [inaudible]. And right now it's not actually producing offsets. They are getting paid for progress in reducing deforestation, but the people paying them our programs in Germany and those funders are not getting permission to pollute more. So it's sort of a lower stakes version of what could happen if California passes that standard that they're considering. Because California's decision could open the door for acri actually selling carbon offsets that would allow someone else to pollute. And what we found was, you know, this awkward program is considered the most advanced in the world and it's had some success, but it also has problems. For example, we talked to several officials who very bluntly said they're more interested in the money that would come from selling their offsets than they are in the details of the validity of the offsets themselves. Speaker 3: 05:53 Their concern is the emergency situation on the ground. They're seeing deforestation happening and they just need money to help stop deforestation. And the general idea is if that comes with some amount of credits that aren't valid, that risk is worth it because they need to protect the forest. Now, and that's kind of a fundamental issue here is, you know, we talked to scientists who said, yes, we know these programs have problems. They have some scientific uncertainties, but we can't afford to worry about those details because we don't have a better solution and we desperately need money to help preserve forests. Speaker 2: 06:29 Can you mention California's expanding or looking to expand its carbon credits program? What's the situation there? Is that likely to happen? Speaker 3: 06:35 So it's unclear right now. They have spent many years working on something called the tropical forest standard, which is a kind of blueprint or rule book on what makes a good program for preserving tropical forests. And so one way you can use that blueprint if state regulators approve it, is you can use it as a tool to link up states like acri and to help them sell their carbon credits to, for example, California or other countries and states. Speaker 2: 07:08 That was pro publica reporter Lisa Song speaking with KPBS round table host marks our Paula Maura contributed to Propublica's reporting on the carbon credit program. Speaker 4: 07:19 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 Democrats are gearing up for some of the most hotly contested races in San Diego County. Mayor City Council and county supervisor will book all beyond the 2020 ballot. Kpbs Metro reporter Andrew Bowen talked with newly elected county Democratic Party chairman will Rodriguez Kennedy about his election strategy. Speaker 2: 00:21 Well Roger Gets Kennedy. Thanks so much for joining us. Glad to be here. Thank you. So you are 31, you're the youngest chair of the county Democratic Party ever. You are a veteran, you were discharged under, don't ask, don't tell. And uh, you were also homeless for awhile. You lived out of your car. How is all of that lived experience going to inform how you approach this position? My lived experience has in many ways shaped my political views. They've evolved over the years. There was a point when I was a little bit more cause there are a lot more conservative than I am now, but it's important because my and my activism comes from a social justice standpoint and that has led me to the Democratic Party. And so it allows me to engage on issues that previous chairs may not have engaged on because I have lived experienced with those issues, particularly on homelessness and housing. Speaker 2: 01:09 I know you've got your sights set on a democratic majority on the county board of supervisors. What do you think, uh, a majority democratic a board would be able to do? What policy issues do you think they could move on? We've already seen that the board has operated significantly differently with Nathan Fletcher on the board. So just imagine what we can do with a democratic majority, but I see that we can do more on housing. I see that we can do more on mental health. Um, I, I think those are important areas that we're going to have to look at. Um, because a lot of the problems that we have regionally are better served when we have better county participation in the solution to those problems. So the party is looking at basically what are the institutions which have the resources to address the challenges of our time. Speaker 2: 01:51 And the county board of supervisors is key to that strategy. I know Sandag is also in your sides, the county transportation agency. Now their board of directors is made up of an elected official from every city in the county. What's your strategy to get more Democrats on that board? I'm probably the first party show to talk about a strategy like the Sandeck strategy and really in order to change the seats we have to focus on some of the areas that we've, we simply need to do better in. Um, in order to change the makeup of Sandag, we have to help take back the county board of supervisors. But also we have to focus in areas in north county like Vista San Marcos where we can flip democratic majorities and change up the makeup of Sandag. It also means that we'll have to focus on unseasoned East county that you might not have expected otherwise, like alcohol where they've just moved to district elections. Speaker 2: 02:37 So it's possible for us to pick up seats there. So the Sandag strategy, since you don't elect anyone to Sandag requires us to focus on the basics, which is city councils and local races that the county Democratic Party is going to increase. It's, it's focused on, um, and that means that some races like in Vista and San Marcos and El Cahone and even national city, other, other places across the county are going get more attention from our party and more resources from our party than they might've if we were just focusing on congressional seats or something. Last November, the Democrats picked up a San Diego city council seat and district to, uh, with the election of Jen Campbell. A lot of the messaging in that campaign centered around Trump that, uh, Laurie's Afa Republican, um, was, you know, the same in the same party is Donald Trump. How important really is Donald Trump to a local city council race? Speaker 2: 03:28 And how much is that going to play into your strategy in 2020. The reality is, is that we are in a presidential year, um, we're going to have a very contested democratic primary, which means turn up will be high. And the, the districts that we're targeting are our districts in which Trump is unfavorable. So sometimes in elections where you don't have much information about the elected official that you're, or candidate that you're voting for, it helps to know what their values are. And the reality is is that Trump's, uh, values do not, are not consistent with the values of San Diego. [inaudible] my goal is to make sure that that's not the top thing that we're talking about. It's one of you, one of the things we're talking about, but in, in reality, this Democratic Party is going to be talking about issues, um, which is why we're going to create the first ever county party platform to show what are our values, are, what our issues are, and to lead with those values. Speaker 2: 04:18 We've also seen some races where there are two Democrats running against each other. And last November there was a case, the county Democratic Party actually putting out attack ads against one of the Democrats in erasing city council. District Eight, how are you going to handle a races where the party has endorsed one Democrat over another and they're the two are competing against each other? Well, the that was deeply unpopular within our party. I had supported the candidate who was attacked. She was a member of our central committee and I, I do not support that approach in that specific race. There are situations in which Democrats may have just opposed like the values of the Democratic Party in which there may be times that you have to highlight those differences, but those can be done from a policy perspective and from a more respectful perspective than the sort of the Democrat B is the Trump democrat or whatever. Speaker 2: 05:07 So we're going to start looking at how we can hold our electeds accountable in a more constructive way as opposed to issuing sort of Ad Hominem attack ads. Earlier this month, you spoke at the Umb Democrats, uh, Democratic Club. This is the group that's focused on building more housing. A lot of the policies that they support are fervently opposed by Democrats, by elected Democrats and democratic activists. How do you as the party chair manage that difference of opinion when it comes to housing politics, which is really front and center in the local political debate? Well, we have to communicate better. The reality is is that we have to, we have to change the way we look at housing policy and we have to make sure that we're building more density, more developmental, long transit transportation lines, a sustainable development, and we have to do things in order to make that more available. Speaker 2: 05:57 Otherwise, we're going to have a situation in which this crisis, particularly with housing, with people not being able to afford to live here in San Diego, where we a beautiful place where we all want to live. Um, but also that to increase the problem with homelessness, we have to address those issues. And as a result of that, we're going to have to have some tough conversations with even people among our Democratic Party. And the reality is, if you look at the Democratic Party is a minority but a vocal minority that opposes housing. But if we're serious about solving the issue of homelessness, which is a major problem in our county, and if we're serious about addressing the issue of skyrocketing rents, we have to do something there. Speaker 1: 06:34 Of all of the races in 2020 in San Diego County, what is your highest priority? The county board of supervisors is clearly our highest priority. Speaker 2: 06:42 We have three seats up, two of them are really favorable for Democrats. One of them isn't as favorable but could be surprising. Looking at the turnout, there's some really good data that shows that our turnout models favor democrats in both district three and district one. District three is Christian gas bar district one is, um, is going to be an open seat, formerly Greg Cox to see. And in both of those districts, Democratic presidential candidates to prevailed over Republicans. And we had made significant gains in those districts, particularly in district three where we gain the majority of the Escondido city council by and also the mayoralty there. So there's going to be a lot of focus on district three and district one is a democratic seat. So this is our year to take it back. Speaker 1: 07:22 Well Rodriguez Kennedy, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Joining me is KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Andrew, welcome. Thanks Maureen. Is it your sense in speaking to the chair that a San Diego County Democratic Platform could differ from the state or National Democratic Platform? Well, I think it's likely to defer in terms of what issues it addresses and how it addresses them. To some extent the state party platform addresses things like national security, agriculture, Internet and free speech in those I don't think are super relevant at the county level. So it's likely to focus mainly on the issues that are relevant here locally. Now housing is a major issue at both the state and the local level. And Democrats are divided on housing at both of those levels. Though those divisions are often only visible when it comes to specific developments or specific laws. And a platform can speak in the abstract, it can support general ideas. Speaker 1: 08:14 So, um, one thing I'm curious to, to see as the county starts developing into a platform is, or the county Democratic Party starts developing its own platform, is how specific about these policies around housing are they going to get? How, you know, how granular and are they going to support specific policies and laws or are they going to speak more in the abstract? Will Rodriguez Kennedy talked about flipping seats in places like Vista and San Marcos because of what he claims our democratic majorities in those areas. How have demographics changed in the North County that would allow for Democrats to win? Well, the trend has certainly been favorable for Democrats in North County. We definitely saw that the 49th Congressional district, Daryl Eissa, the former Republican who represented that district while he's still a Republican, but he used to represent that district. He lived in Vista. And that was where these regular protests from flip the 49th, uh, we're taking place at his district office there. Speaker 1: 09:10 Mike Levin, the Democrat who won last year, one with a very comfortable majority over the Republican in that race. Diane Harkey. So there's clearly democratic energy in North County and what Rodriguez Kennedy says he plans is to channel that energy to the down ballot races. The question in the context of Sandag, which is what we were talking about there is whether any Democrat is better than any Republican. There are some Democrats on the Sandag board now who are our siding more with the Republicans on this question of whether we should be investing our tax dollars in freeway expansions. Best example as Paul Mcnamara, he's the mayor of Escondido. He is a Democrat who unseated a Republican incumbent, so that was a big deal in terms of that election, but the payoff in terms of democratic policy goals at Sandag isn't clear yet. What about the disputes among local labor unions that they traditionally of course support the Democrats in San Diego? Are Those disputes effecting the unity of the party? A lot of those disputes in the Labor community were centered on Mekhi Casper Marian, who was the head of the United Food and commercial workers chapter. He was actually voted out of his position leading that union. So a lot of those disagreements and Intra Party fighting that we saw last year in 2018 I don't think is likely to happen next year. I been speaking with Kpbs Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Andrew, thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3: 10:35 Okay. Speaker 1: 00:00 Advocates across the United States rd crying a proposed policy from the Trump administration that would make it easier for a homeless shelters to discriminate against trans individuals. Meanwhile, San Francisco is leading the nation by opening the only transitional housing shelter programs specifically designed for Trans Youth K Qeds, Michelle Wiley reports Speaker 2: 00:24 between the dozens of Victorian homes that line San Francisco's hate districts. It's the only longterm transitional living program specifically designed for Trans identified youth in the state. The program opened quietly back in February and then over here's the kitchen. You can just Larkin Street youth services, which runs the program, says they saw a need to create a trans specific shelter for youth who may avoid traditional shelters where their gender identity may not be understood or respected. Speaker 1: 00:50 Oftentimes they're reluctant to go into a traditional transitional living program or a shelter because for example, the restrooms maybe not gender neutral, so they're forced to choose program director Matthew for sure in this environment. It creates, um, a gender neutral space and they're with peers like themselves who are kind of going through the same exploration that they are Speaker 2: 01:14 currently. The shelter is home to five trans identified youth between the ages of 18 and 24 my name is Bobby. I'm 23 years old. I'm was born and raised in California and I relocated to San Francisco about a year ago. Bobby grew up in San Jose into a family of 12 her parents are mostly absent and when they were there they were under the influence. Bobbie says she was a troubled kid. She didn't graduate high school, started selling drugs, and eventually ended up getting incarcerated. It was in jail that she came out as trans and I remember like getting beat up for it and then after that I kind of was just like, well, I just dealt with this in jail. Who cares now? You know what I mean? There's no, I feel like there no harsher experience. We're coming out. After getting out, Bobby moved to San Francisco. Then one night out with friends, she got into a fight and ended up going to jail again during intake. Speaker 2: 02:07 She told the guards that she was trans, but something different happened this time. She was taken to a section with other trans women. As time passed, I didn't see them as trans. I saw them as other woman and I was thinking like, no, I'm here. And I'm with them and this is my family. Since leaving jail, Bobby's been staying at the shelter in the hate. She says, being in the shelter allows her to relax. San Francisco itself is so beautiful. Like if I want to go out for a walk, which is to me sounds funny, but that's something I enjoy doing, you know? So it's learning how to just like live a lifestyle that's an, I feel like there's such a negative connotation with this word, but normal. And that's the idea behind the shelter, to allow Trans youth the space to relax, create connections, and focus on building a new kind of life. Bobby says she's going to look for a job or maybe go back to school. Official. Say they're working on bringing in one more person to fill the six bed shelter for the California report. I'm Michelle Wiley. Speaker 3: 03:03 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm wearing Kavanagh and I'm jade Hindman. There are different ways to cope with a new chronic medical condition. Some may want to learn everything there is to know about their condition while others may seek out support groups for help, but one San Diego resident found comfort in humor after she was diagnosed with cancer. She shares her story as part of our first person series. Hi, Speaker 2: 00:26 my name is summer Guldan and a year ago is that now it's with Milo fibrosis. Speaker 3: 00:31 Yes. Speaker 2: 00:40 When you see me you probably think, oh at a sweet little old lady and I really appreciate that. Thank you. But my bone marrow is really over the top and wild and now it's Milo fibrosis. I'm not real well versed on it because I don't think that's a good idea to dwell on your illnesses. There's only 1,855 people in the United States that have this better had something to do with the blood cells and the bone marrow not doing what it's supposed to do. So it's very serious and in care of a Speaker 4: 01:17 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 01:28 for awhile I was just pretty down. Then one night I thinking about it and I had taken standup comedy and even performed at New York a few times. So I know I was pretty good at it. So I called, I emailed my comedy teacher, Tony Calibri. Geez, he's very good. And I said, do people ever make a cock head deal, comedy routine about cancer? And he went back and he said, if they really have it, they do. So I said, okay, I'm coming to your class. So [inaudible] you're probably wondering, why do I mad gangs and brown hair because I have cancer and it's than me. Speaker 2: 02:21 And once I started riding through routine and observing things, I've felt more like a kid control it because I was turning it into something. And I'm not too, you know, I'm not really in debt. Having that as my identity. Sam [inaudible] dresses company called me when I was in math and she, yeah, that can happen. Condo find out if I'm still around and it's Kinda like the body counts. And every time when I first did my routine, I was so sick. I thought I was gonna say that I was terrified. I had told a few of my friends about it, but I was just so scared because I didn't add the audience, take an eye on invited my doctor and two girlfriends said, those are the only people I knew in the audience. I was so scared that all day long I kept starting to call the phone and I could easily tell my teacher I have a stack. Is that what makes sense? I just felt I was so nervous on stage. I had my notes, I was just shaking that I still thought I was funny. I have to say that. And then they laughed more for me than anybody else in the shower. I'm not bragging, but they really did. And I think, well maybe they felt sorry for me, but they seemed really laugh. [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:02 here, I can't see it here. Speaker 3: 04:08 Oh, hi. [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:11 she was talking about having a phone, their towns and how can we are grateful I'd be to the donor. I don't think I can handle it. I have to take my own cheese and then go to the hub town. Speaker 3: 04:27 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:35 like the idea of touching someone else's bone there. That the last year has gone from really suffering from physical ailments to now I feel the same as you. I don't feel sick or anything. I'm not tired. I'm going to zoom. But tonight I've already walked along ways today. Then a lot of shopping. Um, it, it's been a scare a year, but it's really made me appreciate everything. Comedy has helped me be in control and put the endorphins up so to speak. Cause right now I'm in two plays. One of them's a comedy. One of them's fairly sad vet. I think when you do comedy, you have your own mind, controls everything you do. So it goes a little bit above that. And I, I, I totally believe in it. Speaker 3: 05:41 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 05:54 Samara golden helps run the North Park Vaudeville theater with Speaker 1: 05:58 her husband. This first person was produced by Marissa Cabrera Speaker 3: 06:06 [inaudible].