86. Summer Check-in (and we want to hear from you)

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We’re still on hiatus, but summer’s moving fast. We’re popping in for a quick check-in. In our last episode back in June, we shared all our big summer plans... but did we actually follow through? Tune in and find out.

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Transcript

Sonia (00:46)
Welcome back to the Grown and Growing Podcast. I'm Sonia.

Roberta (00:50)
And I'm Roberta.

Sonia (00:51)
Hey Roberta, it's been a minute. How's summer going for you?

Roberta (00:53)
Hey! ⁓

Summer's going well. It's going quite not as planned, but it's still good.

Sonia (01:02)
Right, I'm just thinking back to our last episode. We had all of these big plans for summer. I was gonna relax and read and you were gonna go to Spain and yeah, we had big plans, big plans. So we wanted to check in with everybody. One, to say we still here guys, we're still here. And we wanted to see how the summer was going. Roberta, start with you. Tell me what you've done in this, what, month, two months since we've been away.

Roberta (01:11)
being south of France and.

here.

Yeah.

Couple of

months, I know, where has the summer gone? I had all these plans of traveling and doing all this stuff and I have pretty much done none of it. I was excited because with my job, my full-time job, which is typically hybrid, we get July and August fully remote. So I'm like, I'm gonna use this opportunity to just be all over the world and just work wherever. And I've been working mostly from my home and some from Pennsylvania. ⁓

I did go visit my mom, which was great. I'd spent the whole week, this week actually, visiting her in Tidewater, Virginia. But yeah, I was expecting to be in Europe a lot more than what I actually have been, which is, you know, zero. I've been there, zero. Right, which I think came down to a lack of planning, like a desire planning. Like I wanted to be there, but then the idea of...

Sonia (02:12)
which has been zero. You've been there zero.

Zero, you, more than zero.

Roberta (02:26)
Looking at flights and hotels and Airbnbs and all the things and the cost of everything, I feel like everything is really expensive right now. I just got drained and I just stopped.

Sonia (02:35)
It is.

So you were, you shared this picture on your Instagram stories and I was like, okay, you bragging a little, but last year you were in the vineyard, you were in Martha's Vineyard, that's where everybody is.

Roberta (02:45)
was

actually, yes, was literally one year ago this week, which is my first time going and spent, know, being there, spending any time, which was great.

Sonia (02:54)
So there's

been a lot of conversation about the haves and the have-nots when it comes to Martha's Vineyard and what the vibe is like there really. I've always wanted to go. Morgan has a week there. There's a, Morgan State University, my alma mater, has a week there where they spend their time there with alumni. But I've never actually been. It looks really fun to me. But tell me, you've been there, what is the vibe like really?

Roberta (03:20)
Yeah.

So yeah, I've been there once and it was for a full week and it was during one of those kinds of, call it black alumni weekends. Like I feel like all the month of August, maybe July and August and Martha's Vineyard is like black folk homecoming.

Sonia (03:31)
Yeah.

Roberta (03:37)
I think it's divided, and I haven't read into a whole bunch of all the think pieces about it, whatever, but I think it's divided between the people who are, I would say, native to Martha's Vineyard, meaning like, if not live there, like, from childhood would go there every summer as their vacation spot, and so they just have a certain perspective and sense of normalcy, and then when you have all these new people coming in that are not familiar with the area and try to kind of like take over,

Sonia (03:51)
Mm-hmm.

Roberta (04:07)
It's, I don't know, it feels like a little gentrifying, if you will.

Sonia (04:12)
taking over? What do they do? I don't know. Is it because brands are there?

Roberta (04:14)
lot of people, a lot

of people. And so like the one area, like Inkwell, like the beach, and you go there and it's just tons of people. Like you can't even like edge in, it was so hard for us to edge in and like just get a little spot, because there's so many people. And like you just walk around Oak Bluffs, which is like kind of the, so there's two like major areas, Oak Bluffs and then there's Edgar Town. And it's like the touristy kind of places. And it's just people everywhere. Black people.

Sonia (04:41)
So basically you're saying,

don't go in August, go in July. Because there's still gonna be black people there, right? Martha's Vineyard, this particular area is, you didn't have as much fun because there's so many people there. I mean, you were one of the implants, you were one of the people. Yeah.

Roberta (04:45)
Maybe.

Yeah.

Right, I was one of the judge-ifiers.

⁓ I'm not saying don't go or go a certain time. That was just my sense of the people who are ⁓ complaining about it or have any kind of pushback. I would see it as the people who have been vacationing there for decades or either already have a home there and you've got all these new people coming in.

Sonia (05:12)
Yeah. I can see how that's jarring, right? You got, I can

see how that's jarring. You come in and, you know, you're vacationing there since the seventies or whatever. And now it's like all of these people, your, your spot, your secret spot has become the hotspot. Do you feel that tension while you're there though?

Roberta (05:29)
Exactly.

No, but I mean you can tell kind of the people that have been there for a while. You know what mean? They just move differently.

Just like you can, I mean to continue on with the HBCU kind of example, you can tell when you come onto a campus like who's a freshman and who's a senior. Like who's been there for a while and just knows the lay of the land and just they move differently than someone who's just new there and exploring and excited and like, you know, it's just that kind of difference in energy.

Sonia (06:03)
I'll get there one day. I one day. I've been saying it for years, but never been able to pull it off. It's also very expensive. So.

Roberta (06:05)
I mean.

It's very expensive,

but it's like one of those things to experience. I don't know that it necessarily would be like a annual vacation spot for me. It's just like I've experienced a lot of different places across the world and like when I went to the Maldives and it's like a bucket list place and I'm like, this is great, but also there's plenty of beaches and other really, really nice places closer and less expensive and, and they're just as nice. So I'm like, sure, experience it and maybe go back. Maybe you'll like it.

Sonia (06:32)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, just to go. Okay.

Well, your summer didn't include that this summer. I agree with you. I felt like I had all of these plans to just chillax, relax, and have a, I think I was gonna read and just be offline. I've been kinda offline less. I haven't been online as much. Haven't been able to read as quickly or as much as I thought I was going to. I feel like the summer just flew by.

And all of a sudden, my kids go back to school next week. And I'm like, wait, what happened? So what have I been spending the summer doing? Renovating my house, which is not a vacation. That is stressful to me.

Roberta (07:16)
Yeah.

Sonia (07:16)
And it's not

a big renovation. They're very small renovations, we're redoing the bathroom. And it's the picking the paint, picking the mirror, the vanity. I hate all of that. I want somebody to come pick out what I like and put it all together. Like the measuring. The fact that you have to measure the stuff to get the right size, that's often my downfall.

Roberta (07:24)
Alright.

It's the cognitive

load. feel that was the same thing that happened with me when like with not traveling. It's the cognitive load and like having to do and make all these decisions that I'm like, I don't, I don't.

Sonia (07:50)
Yeah, I just want it to be done. So we did go on vacation though.

two family friends of ours. We take our families to the Outer Banks. We've been doing this for, I think the last 10 years. I think the first time we went was in 2017, so almost 10 years. And we go every other year. so this year was the year.

And it's always a good time. It's in Outer Banks. We stay in Corolla. We rent a house. We go buy way too much food at Walmart. Way too much food. And we spend time there. We cook our own dinners. We play a lot of games. We swim in the pool, go to the beach, go bike riding. It's really a great vacation. So I did get to do that for a week and that was amazing. But I feel like I should still have a month left.

of summer and I don't and I'm kind of disappointed in that. ⁓

Roberta (08:44)
Well first of all,

everything you just described is pretty much the same thing as Martha's Vineyard, except probably warmer.

Sonia (08:52)
and whiter

Roberta (08:55)
Let me be clear, like the Martha's Vineyard experience in August, like July and August, is a lot blacker than it normally typically is in other months, but it's still a white area. It's still a white area. But anyway, but yes, that sounds...

Sonia (08:55)
There's not a of, there's not a ton of black people there.

⁓ yeah.

Yeah, how they feel about it. They're probably

like, it's time to pack up, end of July. Let's go back to where we came from. But yeah, I really enjoy Outer Banks. is...

⁓ The ride to get there is always taxing. Just going down 95 in this area is terrible no matter what. So going to work, coming home, just in the summer there's just so much traffic because everybody's either going south or everybody's coming north, so there's always traffic. So the ride sucks and then you get to the Outer Banks and you have to go up that long strip. It one way in, one way out kind of thing. But when you get there, you kind of just stay put.

And it's cool. So my kids, I'm like, my kids, I'm like, this is amazing. I wish I could have like had a week at the beach when I was growing up, but I'm glad I can do it for my kids. And we always have a good time. We stay up way too late playing games like mafia and trash. I learned new games every time I go. Right. I didn't either until...

Roberta (10:01)
Yeah, same.

I don't even know what those are, but okay. Those like card

games?

Sonia (10:16)
Mafia is a game, it's a game you put your head down. It's like Clue, you're trying to guess who the murderer is. Anyway, really fun with a lot of people. So I did that. I didn't, you know, I didn't read as much. ⁓

I know I talked about reading a lot. ⁓ I finished one book there, Matriarch, by Beyonce's mama, Tina Knowles. It was okay, it was good book. I read it on, I did it on audiobook. It was fine, it was fine. I mean, I think there was some details that she...

Roberta (10:45)
Yeah.

Sonia (10:51)
a woman is 70 years old or something. And so she's lived a lot of life. And so part of that is interesting. But then, you know, the parts that are really interesting about her life that makes her.

that makes us as the public interested in her most is her time with Destiny's Child. And so sometimes you want to get into like, no girl, what was really happening when B met J? How old was she really? Like all those things you want to get into that she just glosses over, right? I just like, I mean, but it's not her story to tell, so I get it. But it was fine. reading the audio book, I will say it was kind of funny. She reads it like a 70-year-old, she was.

Roberta (11:28)
Who was the narrator?

Sonia (11:31)
And she was tired of it, okay? Like, she... I felt like she was like, why did I agree to do this? She would be reading like, yeah, and so we went over here and we did this and then we did that. And then we went back. I'm like, ma'am, you can't take deep breaths in the middle of reading your own book. It's just funny. It's just funny to hear her read it. But it's nice to have it in her own voice because, you know, you know, they country and so...

You wanna hear what Tina got to say in her own voice, but it's hilarious, because it is like sometimes she gets tired of reading her own book. ⁓ But, so yeah, and now I am reading the actual book of The Best Man. which, it's been interesting so far. I've heard a lot of good reviews about it. So far it's okay. It hasn't...

captured me enough to like stay up all night and reading it because I want to get to the next part. I didn't, I don't get that feel for it. And it also picks up like right where the series left off, sort of. And I had to kind of remember, I'm like.

Roberta (12:37)
I don't like the best man

best man, but like the, what's his name? Taye Diggs and them.

Sonia (12:42)
Yeah, you know the best man. Did you watch the series? It's like, God, yes, yes.

Roberta (12:47)
was a series? I watched

the movie and then there was a sequel that I never watched or something.

Sonia (12:54)
Yeah, and then

there was like a, yeah, there was a movie, the original movie, then there was a sequel to that, where they were like, it was like Christmas time, one of the main characters died, did you see that? Okay, and then there was a series, like eight part, I think it was on Peacock, maybe there were like 10 episodes, 8, 10 episodes. The book picks up after those 8 to 10 episodes. So you wouldn't, you would need to go back and watch it.

Roberta (13:03)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes.

the

Yeah, I'd be lost. Okay.

Sonia (13:24)
So that's what I'm reading right now. What about you? Are you reading anything?

Roberta (13:27)
Okay.

I'm well listening. Does that count? Okay. Because I have audible, which side note if anyone can tell me how to like I don't want to cancel my subscription, but I'm like six, seven credits in and I just need to like pause and they don't let you pause, but I don't want to cancel because I don't want to know because well, they said you can only pause once every like year and a half or something like that.

Sonia (13:32)
Yes, it does.

You can't pause. You can pause.

Ever?

day.

Roberta (13:57)
Like you can pause and it's only up to 90 days. Some kind of crazy rules. And I got in touch with the customer service and they were like, yeah, you're not eligible for a pause.

Sonia (14:04)
You called customer service.

You called customer service.

Roberta (14:09)
you know, the little chat thing. Because yeah, I'm like, why can't I pause? Like I was trying to, anyway. My goal is to pick six books so I can use these credits and then cancel it. So I can just, like, because I have, like, at this point I still have like 10 un-listened to books in my queue. And I'm like, this is too much. Anyway.

Sonia (14:28)
What is your plan when

you quit Audible? Like how are you gonna get books?

Roberta (14:33)
So once I go through, okay, so if I add those six and I already have like 10 that I need to listen to, so once I get through those like 16-ish books, then I'll probably start my membership up again.

Sonia (14:44)
Okay, that's what I did. I was like, I'm quitting Audible. I'm getting a library card. I'm gonna get all my books. No, it was very, look, I get it. I love the library. I would love it, but I don't wanna wait 38 weeks for a book. Yes. For popular books, yes.

Roberta (14:50)
yeah, I ⁓

38 weeks? That's how long the wait list Yeah, I know. And also have

like actual hard copy books that I want to read too. Like I started, I'm the kind of person that I'll start multiple books and then put them down and pick up a book depending on my mood because they're very different books. But then doing that, having five going at one time, takes me like, mm, right now I have four, four going at the same time. That's gonna take me at least six months to finish all of them.

Sonia (15:19)
Five.

Six months? I feel like it's gonna take me longer.

Roberta (15:30)
Anyway.

Rude. It might. but right now the two that I'm listening to are Your Soul's Plan, which actually that one came recommended by Yadira, which is a really good one.

Sonia (15:44)
What is that? ⁓ you know what? I started

reading that. I have eight hours and 14 minutes left.

Roberta (15:51)
⁓ I'm down to an hour and a half left

Sonia (15:54)
All right, this book is provocative. Talk about this book. I think so, that you get to choose your own.

Roberta (15:58)
Is it?

Well, okay, right, coming into it, have to have, not have to have, but I'm coming into it already with the belief that we are all reincarnated and that we come back over lifetimes and we have a soul network. And so if you don't have that same mindset, you're pretty much gonna disagree with everything that's being said in the book because it already goes on that assumption that we are here.

Sonia (16:13)
Mm-hmm.

Roberta (16:27)
multiple times. And the premise of it is that is looking at the plan that we put together before we go into the next lifetime. And the souls we interact with, our soul network, and we kind of have these negotiations, if you will, and conversations in determining what kind of challenges we're going to help each other get through and what lessons we're going to help each other with.

Sonia (16:33)
Mm-hmm.

what's interesting or jarring for me about reading the book is coming to,

⁓ opinion that we choose our own pain, our own level of pain in order to get a lesson out of it. And it is predetermined that you are going to go through this pain so that you can get the lesson. And when you don't feel like you've gotten it in this scenario, you pick a different scenario. And it's like, it's the choosing the pain to me.

Roberta (16:57)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Sonia (17:18)
that is jarring because there's this level of responsibility that it's like, or blame it almost feels like to me. Like, yeah, you chose this, so you better get the lesson.

Roberta (17:26)
Really? ⁓ wow. I feel it, I feel it almost the opposite. I feel it, it's very freeing.

It's freeing in knowing that this thing is not going to completely break me. There is a purpose for it.

Sonia (17:44)
As long as you get the lesson. If you don't get the lesson, then sure. It's it's a, but I guess, cause I look.

Roberta (17:52)
Then you go into something,

so that makes me go into a challenge thinking this is intended to teach me something. What is it? So I have that lens on it saying, okay, what am I supposed to learn from this? Instead of being like, my God, this is so horrible. It's like, okay, well, what is it that I'm supposed to take away?

Sonia (17:57)
Yes.

That's true. I mean, I get that part. And look, I got eight hours left, so clearly I'm not in it all the way, but the lessons that they give, there's a lot about, you know, somebody choosing to live through the AIDS epidemic as a gay man and dying with that, and the lesson that you get out of that. It's very provocative in that way. To me, it's like,

Wow, you chose this. now I don't know how he ties it in a nice bow at the end to make you feel free, but I didn't get free yet. I'm not to that point yet where he feels freeing.

Roberta (18:40)
that's just my own

mentality anyway about it because I already had this like sense and feeling and I think this book for me is confirming a lot of the things that I already kind of thought and it's giving me actual examples because what he does in the book is he works with the person around for example the the man who chose to have AIDS in this lifetime he works through

Sonia (18:46)
Mm-hmm.

Roberta (19:04)
with their spirit guides and he uses mediums and their spirit guides to kind of explain the why and the how and it also speaks to the souls of the closest people around the person. So the mother, the significant other, you know, all these different people and they get together to explain, yes, we chose this thing and you know, this is where free will came in. choices are involved as well, but like...

Sonia (19:20)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Roberta (19:32)
It's giving kind of the behind the curtain a little bit on why these things happen. But again, if you already don't have the kind of belief system that allows you to accept that, then I feel like you're gonna be really frustrated with this book.

Sonia (19:40)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's

not frustrating, it's just very interesting. Because the other question I'm asking at the point I am at the book, clearly I need to go pick it back up, because I haven't read it in a while. But it's like, what end, to what end am I learning these lessons? And for what reason? To become a more evolved spirit? Okay. I gotta, the soul's plan, it is on my list of books that I have not finished reading, so.

Roberta (20:06)
Yes.

That's a good one.

Sonia (20:15)
What else is there?

Roberta (20:16)
It's a good one. as I'm listening to that one, I'm also listening, I just started not long ago, ⁓ The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which I love him as an author. He's great author.

Sonia (20:28)
Mm-hmm.

Roberta (20:28)
love him love him love him as the heaven and earth grocery store

Sonia (20:29)
What's name of the book?

Is that, is it fiction or not fiction? What is it? Okay.

Roberta (20:36)
And fiction, and

it's set in Northeast Philly in, I want to say like the 1940s, maybe 40s, or if not 60s. But anyway, about a Jewish family who is living and working in a predominantly black neighborhood. I'm about three chapters into that. And so far, it's a good book.

Sonia (20:45)
Mm-hmm.

Roberta (21:01)
also reading, I love short stories, like essays, collections of essays. So right now I'm reading The Memory Palace, which started as a podcast, which I've loved for years, like a bunch of short stories. And yeah, like maybe like 30 % through that one.

Sonia (21:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

All right. I wanted to read more fiction this time around, even though the matriarch is not fiction, because I had previously, read the, I'm looking at these books on my list. So I read The Message, The Let Them Theory, The Power of Regret, King, ⁓ before that. And so I was like, okay, light, light. ⁓

Roberta (21:42)
Yeah.

Sonia (21:43)
And then I read, ⁓ started, because I always wanted to read Octavia Butler. So I started off reading, what was the first book? ⁓ It's with a K, I forgot. Kindred, yes. Started with that one. Was gonna read Parable of the Sower, didn't get to this yet. I don't know, I feel like that's not the kind of fiction I was kind of looking for. It's not light fiction. I was like, this is kind of light fiction.

Roberta (21:48)
Mmm, same.

Kindred?

Right.

Sonia (22:14)
Octavia Butler, not so much. But maybe it'll give me insight onto what's happening right now, today. And hopefully it has a happy ending somewhere. Maybe book the next book? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, so, all right. So a lot happening in the summer. Roberta, you down there in DC where you've been occupied.

Have you been asked for your papers? Like what is happening in DC? Tell me, prepare me, I'm up the road from you, what can I expect?

Roberta (22:43)
Alright, so it's interesting. My position and my perspective on it, and it made me realize how much privilege I have, because I don't interact or deal with that nonsense directly a lot, being where I live.

Sonia (22:58)
What is the nonsense

that you're referring to? You don't deal with what nonsense.

Roberta (23:01)
Well, with the ICE agents and the police and all the things that are basically coming through to quote unquote clean up crime in DC, ⁓ but it's really just a takeover of black and brown neighborhoods.

Sonia (23:04)
Okay.

Roberta (23:18)
There have been at this point, I think, a little over 100 arrests, but it's been, just as you see in other states, in LA specifically, it's people rolling up in unmarked cars with masks on, with no identification, just grabbing people. There was a story from, I think, two days ago of them doing that and like snatching this one guy off of his moped, like a delivery guy.

and it being like a violent thing and yeah, these people are grabbing people, throwing them in unmarked cars and taking them to who knows where.

Sonia (23:49)
So I guess what I'm, so that's been happening. So that's been happening since, for the last couple of months. I guess what I don't understand about these raids, I'm like, do they know which person they're looking for? Or are they just looking for Hispanic, brown looking people?

Roberta (24:01)
No. Right, it's black and brown. So

it's that, and then it's also going into black neighborhoods. So for here, it's like southeast mostly. And incorporating these curfews and checkpoints, and yeah, asking people for their paper.

Sonia (24:11)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Curfews?

and check

Roberta (24:19)
Yeah, well first of all, DC already had a curfew. So if you were under, if you were a minor, if you were like 17 and under, you already could not be out in the streets to past, I think it was like 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. So that was already here. No, not really. But there was no enforcement, to be honest with you. There's little enforcement. Now, people getting stopped. And also not just people, not just minors, this is everybody. There's different tech.

Sonia (24:24)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Do people abide by it? Okay.

Mm-hmm.

So you can't be

out alone or you can't be, you can be out with a guard, somebody that's over.

Roberta (24:48)
You can be out,

it's not consistent. You can just look like you're a criminal, whatever that may look like, and you're going to get stopped. So yeah, and so the thing is, what I've seen in DC is the typical DC response, we're just, first of all, we're not ready for that. And by ready, I mean we're not ready to be organized resistance.

Sonia (24:55)
Yeah, that sucks.

Roberta (25:15)
So the things I see on my social media, maybe just a reflection of people that I follow, is like, these are the books to read about resistance, or these are the things that, and I'm like, no, we need to figure out how to be organized and be unified and push back on this as a collective. But also again, realizing that I have privilege to not have to be directly on the front lines unless I choose to, and to the extent that I choose to, because I'm not really in a position, I personally have not gone through a checkpoint or anything like that.

Sonia (25:29)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Roberta (25:43)
So it makes me both feel a sense of relief, but also makes me angry on behalf of these people and want to do something, but I just don't know what to do specifically. So it's a very, it's dissonant space that I'm in personally, but. ⁓

Sonia (25:52)
Yeah.

Yeah, you

have the privilege right now. I mean, I think what people have been warning us about is that, yes, it is starting with a certain group of people, but eventually it's gonna be all of us.

It's gonna be all of us. And that's what I wrestle with. It's like, well, what do you do? So I don't hate people who are like, ⁓ here's this book you should read. Yes, we should all be reading the books. But then well, then how do you apply it? And I think I said this before on the podcast. I am torn about whether black people should be the first people on the line, putting themselves on the line, going out protesting, being the ones that are arrested. Because,

Roberta (26:23)
then.

Sonia (26:37)
Number one, we're going to get the worst treatment. I almost feel like they are waiting for us. They're baiting us to come out and do a Black Lives Matter, you know, 2020 part two, so that they can escalate, right? I think there is that. I'm like, they're just waiting for us to do that. And so there is a hesitation on my part to see black people out there being the ones who put ourselves on the line. Number one, we did that already.

Roberta (26:45)
Yes.

No, I agree.

Sonia (27:05)
We did that already.

made some, not we, but our ancestors did that already. We made the progress and y'all took it away. So I feel like, you know, people who really have privilege, which are white people who have privilege, they should be on the front lines because this is also impacting them. It used to be like, yeah, that's happening to you over there, but it's not just, you know, ice is just one thing, but taking over your city impacts everybody.

Taking away Medicaid and Medicare, that impacts everybody. Not getting the amount of funding you need for your city after you pay all these taxes. That impacts everybody, unless you live in a red state where they just basically ignore you and say you can just continue to exist in the way that you have been. There are no improvements for you, but we'll leave you alone. that's the space I'm sitting in.

Roberta (27:57)
I agree, I think we

need more of the sandwich guy. I don't if you saw that video.

Sonia (28:02)
Why did he throw a Subway sandwich at them?

Roberta (28:04)
So, first of all, the before part was like he was yelling at them, right? He got really, he was, I don't know if he was drunk or what, but he was heated. He had enough. And now it just happened to be the thing that he had in his hand was this, I guess he just came from Subway it's so funny to me, but I mean, I get it. But he was just so frustrated. He just threw it.

Sonia (28:09)
Right.

Heat it.

I'm throw my salad. That's not the most.

Roberta (28:28)
But he knew in that moment he fucked up. So he just took off running. It's just so funny. Anyway, so.

Sonia (28:34)
So did he get

more, is he gonna get more or less time than the person who threw his shoe at George Bush? That's what I'm,

Roberta (28:40)
I don't even know how

much time that the shoe guy got. So it doesn't matter. So this is the thing that everybody's talking about here about that, because of course, again, we got a nerd out and break everything down here. ⁓ It's considered a felony to assault. So that was an assault, regardless of what the weapon was. It was an assault on an officer. so what people are saying is, well, first of all, he lost his job. He worked for DOJ. And so he lost his

Sonia (28:43)
think a sandwich is less dangerous, so I feel like, ⁓ does it?

Mm-hmm.

well, they were gonna fire him

regardless, yeah.

Roberta (29:08)
he lost

his job there, but ⁓ he was arrested, but then he was later released and the judge debating the validity of it actually being an assault. And so, and that's when people are saying, well, the actual weapon should be a part of the consideration. Either way, for DC people, he's a hero. people here are putting him up there with Luigi. yeah, people like, I mean, well,

Sonia (29:29)
First of all, what? First of all, why is Luigi up there? He did kill a person. mean...

Roberta (29:36)
Again, like

this is talking about the state of our country and how divided and how we in need of leadership we are. Leadership from...

Sonia (29:44)
Actually, I feel

like it just shows what a joke we are.

Roberta (29:48)
Well that and the thing I think I sent you the other day about the ICE commercial which is actual like it's an actual commercial. First of all Da Baby needs to sue them and send them to cease and desist order for using it.

Sonia (29:53)
First of all, that video was And

the comments were like, this is hard, this is hard, sign me up for ICE. I'm like, wow, y'all really falling, y'all really falling for it? Please be bots, please. I think you're bots, but I don't know.

Roberta (30:02)
Right?

It's scary. At the end of the day, it's scary at how much of a joke our whole system has become.

And I don't know if this is, like people have said before that this administration and this person, which I don't even wanna say his name, like I feel like we're in that phase right now of everything becoming so ridiculous to the point where it has to tip somewhere. And like that.

Sonia (30:32)
It's dangerous. Well,

it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous and stupid. And you just like, wow, these idiots are running the country until something major happens, right? Until there's a, yeah.

Roberta (30:42)
Well, that's what I'm saying. Something is

going to have to tip in some direction. Don't know what. Hopefully it's not violent. The people that I talked to were just like, we're going to get to a civil war. We need to be preparing ourselves because they've been ready on the other side.

Sonia (30:54)
Yeah.

They

have been, that's why they just give away guns, like two for one. That's why, I mean, yeah, it is scary. I do, you know, look at the times. I'm like, ugh, what kind of world am I releasing my kids in? Like, I'm about to be one of those parents who's like, the kids can never leave the nest. Like, y'all, let's all just stay together.

Roberta (31:16)
is not great either, the fact that they have been around this kind of nonsense pretty much their whole lives. And they're not, I mean it's not like they are unaware of what's going on. I think especially for the kids that are like your kids age, they're teenagers-ish that are coming up on college age, literally, their first pieces of conscious awareness of this country was President Obama.

Sonia (31:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Roberta (31:44)
And so you go from that and that, know, kind of like what that puts on your mentality, especially as like a young black person thinking you can be everything and there's all this hope in the world and then going through, you know what mean? Like the last,

Sonia (31:52)
Right, thinking you can be everything to thinking... ⁓

And it's like, nevermind, you actually can't. You actually should not try. And we're going to keep you from trying.

Roberta (32:04)
So honestly, I think they may

be better prepared than we were. Like our minds are being blown right now because we've seen so much more, Our conscious awareness goes back to the bushes, and seeing everything play out from then to now. even, yeah, Reagan to some extent, yeah, Yeah, I don't know. think I, maybe I have more trust because I don't have kids and teenagers or whatever, but I think the kids.

Sonia (32:16)
before. Reagan even, yeah.

Roberta (32:29)
Okay.

Sonia (32:32)
I mean, I feel like they said the kids are gonna be alright when they talk. I mean, because how does a generation of boomers, when you think about the activists that boomers were, raise a generation of racist kids? How did our generation become the people upholding?

white supremacy or believing in these beliefs. How did our generation become the one propping up a Donald Trump? That's why I'll be like, yeah, the kids are all right until when, right? Until they have to get out into the world, to the world beats them up. Where does it all go wrong? The kids are all right right now. Do they stay all right? No, because how do we keep going backwards if the kids stay all right? They don't.

Roberta (33:08)
Right. ⁓

that's continued raising of them and you know continued steering in the right direction and supporting I think that our generation is a lot more resistant than the boomers were I think that's gonna be a part of it I think that's a good thing and it's gonna be a part of it I don't know look listen I can't speak on any of this shit because I think I would never thought that we would be where we are right now

Sonia (33:42)
Correct, we supposed to be making progress. We going backwards, I mean quickly. where did July go? Where was June? We're about to be done with August, and Donald Trump has only been in office for eight months. Somebody tell me how to math, that math ain't mathin', cause I swear I feel like he been on his third year. How does that happen?

Roberta (33:59)
Good.

Sonia (34:03)
Anyway, I don't wanna edit this too much, Roberta. So we said we were gonna be quick. We're already 30 minutes in.

Roberta (34:09)
I I know. All right,

this is just, this is supposed to be a quick little summer update. Now we talking about the state of world affairs. Right. No, and also I don't want to dedicate any more time than I need to to that mess of a man. Yes.

Sonia (34:17)
a full fledged podcast episode. It's all good though.

Please, let's end on a good note. Let's end on a

good note. You talked about wanting to hear from the listeners, people who listen to this podcast. So Roberta, tell them about your idea.

Roberta (34:39)
So,

well, we have been talking amongst ourselves about our goals for this and what it is that we want to see and create and continue. I think we have been talking a lot about...

the line between educating and entertaining and also building community and being more interactive with people. And so, you know, I wanted to take our conversations out of just you and I and really ask people who are listening what they want. So I was thinking about putting together a survey, very quick survey, to gauge people's interests in...

different things from actual topics and things that we talk about to whether or not be interested in any kind of interaction, whether that be virtual or in person in the DMV area. yeah, and maybe that's a part of both of us, you know, coming from research backgrounds in our grad studies. But the first thing I thought of was, let's hear what the people have to say.

Sonia (35:18)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, we wanna hear what y'all have to say. Let us know what we should be doing. The survey will be quick, right? It'll take less than five minutes. Yeah.

Roberta (35:44)
Quick, like I'm thinking like five or six questions, like real quick. ⁓

But yeah, so haven't exactly figured out how we're gonna put that out. ⁓ Probably, you know, social or something. Yeah.

Sonia (35:54)
Yes, we have. It'll be quick. We'll do Survey Monkey. We'll put the

link online. Can y'all take it? That's it.

Roberta (36:00)
There you go.

So while we're on summer hiatus, we'll do that and incorporate some of those insights into the next season.

Sonia (36:10)
All right, thank you, Roberta. Thanks for checking in.

Roberta (36:13)
Yes, yes, and hopefully yeah, we still got some summer left so we can we can

still eke out, know another book we can actually I'm going I'm leaving today to go up north going to Connecticut for a few days. ⁓ So that's that's still travel.

Sonia (36:25)
So nice.

Yeah, we still got a week and then we got up until Labor Day, really. I even though my kids go back to school on the 25th. And then you got extended summer, like we in DC, so we get that little extended summer in September. Yep, it's still gonna be nice. Let's make it do what it do for these next few weeks. Thank you guys for checking in, for listening, and we will see you next time.

Roberta (36:42)
Right, the weather's still going be nice. Yes.

Do what it do.