 Hello everyone, welcome to the Nicole's Review with ACMI. After a long pause dealing with health issues, we are finally back here in the studio. This show brings together leaders from our community and the wider world. We have a conversation about visions and existing fears that impact our lives, our children's lives, our community, and our generation. So today, let's introduce Maria Perez, my new guest. Welcome Maria, thanks for being here on the show. Thanks for having me, I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me here on the Allington Community Cable TV. Tell me a little bit about you, Maria. Okay, so I love what your show's purpose is vision and current affairs. And I love that that's your focus because I'm a grandmother. I have 10 grandchildren. Wow, congratulations. Yes, so I'm a mother or grandmother. I'm an educator and I've always been interested in politics even as a young girl. I can remember in middle school reading about Abraham Lincoln and really being intrigued with his life and his accomplishments. So as an adult, I've always been concerned about current affairs. And it's funny because my family, when we sit around and talk, we typically talk about current affairs. That is the discussion at our dinner table. That's a very important conversation. I know, yes. And so I've been very interested in what's happening. I'm a student of history, so I'm always reading about presidents and about history and events. And so in the last eight years, I started to get more involved in politics. And now I'm currently the chair of the Lynn Republican City Committee. And I'm running for a state committee. So I'm really putting my feet into the fire, as they say. Excellent. Yes. Now, Maria, what is the primary purpose of human constitution to you? So, like I said, because I'm a student of history, I love our founding documents. And the Constitution really, when you read it, and the founders of our nation, they researched and they really put together a very concise document that gives liberty to people, that gives unalliable rights and that our rights come from God, not from the government. So because if our rights come from the government, the government can take our rights away. Exactly. So it's so important that we really are a nation of laws and Constitution. And so I love the Constitution. And now with all that's happening in our nation, especially since COVID and since all the mandates and all the different overreach of the government, we realize that we really have an important document that protects our rights, protects our ability to, even as the Declaration of Independence, the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of just living our best lives. We have that in these primary documents. So the Constitution is very important to me. I'm a freedom lover. And I understand how important freedom is. And people have the right in our nation, the first to build a right, freedom of speech, freedom to protect yourself, a militia, and all the other bill of rights that we have enable us to have a wonderful, prosperous life. I'm an immigrant. I came to this country as an immigrant. My parents came here. I tell the story with two suitcases. And I can remember the first home we lived in, it actually was condemned after we moved out and it was torn down. The bathroom was on the outside of the apartment. That's how old this apartment building was. So my parents came here with two suitcases and they were able, through their hard work, through their hard work and their honest living, to provide financially for all four of their children to buy their first homes. That on a maintenance salary and a seamstress salary. So my parents really, they experienced an American dream. And so have an eye. I mean, I, you know, at one point was just a stay-at-home mom, went back to school, got my doctorate degree. And with hard work, we can accomplish anything in this country. So I'm really an advocate of hard work, of the American dream, and of all the opportunities this country avails us. What is your vision statement, what, I'm sorry, what is your vision statement with a compromised new policy? So I think because I'm an adverse student of history, I'm always looking at different policies. Because I like to tell people that, because people tell me, Maria, why are you involved in politics? And I say to them because politics involves policies. And policies involve people. So if you care for people, you're going to care for policies. If you care about policies, you're going to care about politics. So that's how I've come into this position, because I'm concerned about people and the policies. And what's happening, especially now with the current administration, that these policies, when men and women write policies, they don't think about what's the long-term outcome of these policies? What will they achieve? And when you look at these policies that we have in place, like the open border, like just the fact that people can steal and get away with it, how many businesses are shutting down now because they can't afford to stay open? So we have to look at policies and look at practicality. What do they do for the American people? Is it a good policy? Is it a negative policy? And then we have to change it. We have to fight to change it, to instill positive policies that enrich people's lives, that values hard work, that rewards hard work. And that's really, I mean, that's how I tell people, work hard. My favorite, one of my two favorite authors are Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. And if you read those, their autobiographies, they tell you how important hard work is. Number one, number two, they tell you that you can start with nothing and end up the president of a university, end up a state's person, statesman. So it's not a matter of where you start. It's a matter of how hard you're willing to work and where you can end up. I think every single high school student should read Frederick Douglass's autobiography and Booker T. Washington. They will get more out of that than anything else. Now, is there a growing distrust in America? Oh, absolutely. I mean, so, like I said, I started my career in 2016, my political career. But when COVID happened, I was just beside myself because look what happened. I'm an educator. They shut down schools. Do you know how much learning children lost? Okay, number one, number two, they shut down small businesses. People who spent their whole livelihood growing a business were shut down. They kept people locked in their homes. Do you know how many suicides happened because of lockdown? Absolutely. How many young people died of overdose because of lockdown? That was government overreach, overreach. So for me, when I look at what's happening in our nation, we have to push back. We have to say, no, we don't want the government telling us what to do. States should have the right, cities should have the right people. I don't want an unelected individual governing our country. Right now, that's what we have. We have unelected individuals telling us what to do, especially with COVID and that overreach, it was really, I call it crimes against humanity. It really was. It really was. Crimes and there should be people that should be paying for the bad decisions they made. Personally, that's how I feel because I am a historian and I see how other people in the past, their crimes were identified. I'm waiting for people to say I was wrong. I'm sorry. We weren't right about the lockdowns. We weren't right about children losing school time. We weren't right about the vaccines. Why aren't people admitting they were wrong? Yeah, I know. Now, our children are under tremendous issues in our nation. Why would you do to make it better? So, because I'm an educator, I've been an educator for 20 years and I've actually taught teachers, so I know all about education. And what's happening in terms of children, especially now because of social media and because what's happening now with children, years ago, children would go outside and play. Years ago, children would have a childhood. We, through the mass media, through social media, we're destroying our children's childhood. And you can never get a childhood back. Once it's gone, it's gone. So, I tell children, because I work in education, go outside, play, do something. But what's happening is that because parents have to work two jobs, because parents aren't home, so many children are just on screens all day long, all day long. No one's going outside, no one's engaging socially. So, our children are paying a huge price, a huge price. One, because of the economy and parents have to work two jobs. Two, because we're being overtaxed and overburdened and the government wants more from us, so parents have to work two jobs. And guess who's paying the price? Children. And the thing about children right now, we're seeing such a high rise of anxiety, depression, and it's all because of the negative social media and because parents aren't available. They're not home. They're not home to meet their social emotional needs of their children. Children, we're in a crisis place in terms of children. And our children are our future. So, what are we giving them? What are we providing for them? So, when it comes to education, we really need parents, because I tell people, parents are the first educators in their children's lives. You are the parent, you're responsible, that your child is reading, that your child is attending school, that your child is doing their homework, that your child has an enriching experience. It is up to the parents. Now, the schools are doing all they can, but the school now is having to pick up the social piece, having to pick up the social emotional piece, and be the role of the parent. No, parents need to take on that responsibility. That's their responsibility. And if the parent is on board in terms of taking on their responsibility, the school is doing their part, children will be successful. And if they're successful, then they'll have a future. Isn't that what we want for children? We want them to have a future. I have 10 grandchildren. I want them to have a future. Now, what is your alternative plan to save the world to children, start with community children and parenting? Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm a reader, so when you look at what's happening in our society and our culture, it's a very, there's a lot of facets that need to change. There's a lot of, I like to call it, foundational belief systems have to change. First, we have to get back to strong families. So there's just no way you can't have a strong community if you don't have strong families. So we have to get back to helping young men and women understand the value of family, the value of marriage, the value of having children. They've done a lot of research lately about young men and young women. And now we have a crisis with young men. They have, really, masculinity is in a very low place right now. And what I was telling my students as I was teaching them is that years ago, young people, you had a goal. You had the goal to get a job. Then you had a goal. Most people got married. Most people had a family. Most people provided for their family. You had a purpose and meaning. And purpose and meaning comes by doing things that are important. They don't come by sitting on a screen all day. Purpose and meaning come by doing things that are important. And there's actually a name for those things. It's called normative skills. Normative skills give you purpose and meaning. So when a young person, whether it's, you know, having a really great job and giving back through your job, so we have to go back to the foundational level, foundational values that bring purpose and meaning. That's working hard. That's living an honest living. That's contributing, giving back. Right, giving back. You know, getting married, having a strong family. Because if you have a strong family, you have strong children. If you have strong children and families, you have strong communities. And so we don't need the government to tell us what to do. We, as community, as families, society, we can make the best decision for our children and for our families. Because ideally, that's what we're supposed to do and we can do that if we educate ourselves properly. Yeah, now what is your mechanism to get the voters out there to vote? Yeah, so for me, I've used this opportunity, this platform, to just share truth, just to share truth. Because what's happening now, especially now in our culture, in our society, there's a lot of lies. And so I typically will tell people, how do you dispel lies by telling the truth? So I'm just going out and speaking to voters and speaking to constituents and people that are concerned about our country. I'm just telling them the truth. For example, I'm involved in a lot of different communities. And a lot of these groups in these communities are very freedom-oriented. People are concerned about losing their freedoms, very much so. I mean, being locked down, I remember when my family, because we would go out for hikes during COVID, and there would be 10 of us, and we had the high number of 10 people, people would yell at us, they would scream at us, like, what are you doing out at 10 people altogether? So people are concerned about freedom. So I'm telling the voters that if you're concerned about your freedom, if you're concerned about the direction this country is taking, if you're concerned about the future of your children and grandchildren and posterity, then you want to vote for individuals who want to protect your freedom, individuals who want to guard your freedom, understand what's at stake, because really the reality is this, we live in the most prosperous country in the whole world. People aren't getting into dinghies and trying to get into China, okay? So they're coming here because we do have opportunity. We do have prosperity. We do have the means to really do and be whoever you want to be. Isn't that amazing? So we're living in a country that will afford you opportunity. If you have enjoyed that yourself and you want that for other people, including your children and grandchildren, then you're going to fight. You're going to vote appropriately. You're going to educate yourself so you're not listening and believing lies. You're being very careful about where you get your information, because I always tell people, where are you getting your information? That's the key piece. The key piece is where are you getting your information? If you get them from the right sources and then you've done your homework, then you know, okay, this is true. This isn't a lie. Like, for example, the border. I live in an inner city. We're paying the price for an open border. And that needs to change and that needs to stop. And so there's all these policies in place. Once again, we're going back to policies. Inflation is a hidden tax. And I know people, and I think I just read something about research, that people, because they can't afford their food, they can't afford their gas, that they're actually going into debt to pay for their bills. Think about that. For the highest debt ratio right now, people are getting into debt with their credit cards because they can't afford to pay their bills. They can't afford to buy food. They can't afford to pay gas. I mean, that's a bad policy, this tax, this hidden tax of inflation. And it needs to stop. And we need to create jobs. Because I work with the youth. We need to create jobs for young men. We need to create jobs like technical jobs, like vocational work. We need to give young men opportunities to come out and do something productive with their lives so that when they graduate high school they can either be an electrician, a carpenter, a plumber, something that they can provide for themselves vocationally and then something they can give back to others. Because you know yourself that when you've had a good day's work, you feel good about yourself. And you feel like, I've done something that's positive, I've done something that I've contributed, I listened to this rabbi and he says, what have you done to bless God's other children? Now, does it concern you how a new current president handling the border crisis? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and like I said, I remember when Trump wasn't at the White House, he started talking about the border. I had no idea what was going on at the border. I was so ignorant. I'm like, well, why is he talking about the border? What's up with the border? But of course, now we know. That's why he spent years harping about a wall. And I'm like, what's up with the wall? Now we know why. Because look, all these people, they're coming in, they're coming in, they're not being vetted. They're not being screened. We don't know where they're coming from and we don't know, I mean, all these countries are just, right, they're just sending them in. And then obviously, so the current administration, I personally, this is my own personal opinion, the current administration is trying to destroy our country. And guess what? They're very effective. When Biden pulled out of Afghanistan and I watched that whole thing, people falling off of planes, I said, he's trying to destroy America. What's he doing? So that's what's happening. So I have no trust in the current administration. They are trying to destroy our country, destroy our way of life, destroy our children. And really, they're trying to make America no longer exist. This is serious stuff we're encountering. And now, you know, people that may not have experienced the border crisis are now experiencing it. I know where I live, it's taxing the schools. It's taxing the medical establishment. It's taxing the infrastructure. It's taxing, there's more crime. I mean, there was murders down the street from where I live. Now, let's talk about you running, right? You want to tell us a little bit about that? So I'm in the third, yes, I'm in the third Essex, which encompasses six communities. And that's Linfield, Saugus, Marblehead, Swamp, Scott, Nahant, and Lin. And so the state is divided into different districts. So every district has a Republican state committee man and woman. And so does in the Democratic Party. So each district has two people representing them, a man and a woman. And these individuals will be making decisions at the state level. For example, what should the Republican Party stand for in terms of policies? Who do we want to stand up for candidates for our next governor or next lieutenant governor? So these are state decisions. And for me, because I've, like I said, I've been involved in politics for a short time, very short time. As a Republican chair, I've been very active in my city in terms of just, once again, just sharing truth, like writing editorials. Our group actually baked and cooked cookies for all the first responders in Lin. And then I've done signature drives. And I actually spoke at the school committee about parents' rights. Because I'm really concerned about parents' rights. So I spoke at the school committee about parents having the option to opt out of sexual sex curriculum. And so parents have that option. In this state, parents can say, I don't want my child sitting and listening to the sex sexual curriculum that is hyper sexualizing my child. Parents can say, no, I don't want my child there. They can opt out. So we need, but parents don't know that. Parents don't know they can opt out. So I went to the school committee and I said, you know, you really need to communicate to parents and let them know that they can opt out of this curriculum. And so they heard me, but nothing really came of it. Nothing really came of it. So I think for me, as a state committee candidate, I'm trying to educate people. I'm trying to inform people. I'm trying to show them what's happening and what they can do to help our country, to help their family, to help their children, to help our community as a whole. And like I said, I'm new to this. I'm new to this political vision. But I think even like your program here is to educate people. Your program here is to help people hear a different voice. And that is so critical because most people are just hearing the silo of the same people they watch or listen to on social media, wherever they're getting their news. You know, I tell people, turn off the TV. Please turn off the TV. Turn it off. Get the community, station, ACMI. Yes. So get regular people, right? Yes. And so you're doing good work. You're doing an important work. You're educating people. You're helping them hear a different side because most people don't hear a different side. I mean, I've been censored in my community. The paper will say, no, Ms. Perez, we're not going to write that. I'm like, I've been censored. I mean, so people don't even have the opportunity to hear the other side. How about the other side? Let's have a dialogue. Let's have a discussion where young people and adults and everyone could say, okay, let me hear both sides of the story. Let me see which one is the right one. Which one is the best one? Which solution brings health and prosperity to all people? So that's really the key. That's the key. So as a state committee woman running for the third Essex for Marblehead Swamp Scotland, Linfield, Saugus in a Hunt. You're busy. I know. And actually some of the other districts are much larger. So I'm here to advocate for people. I'm here to advocate for a secure border, for a reduced crime, for budget integrity in terms of, let's just get a fiscal budget in place to secure our freedoms and our constitution. So I love your question about the constitution because most people don't even know what we have a constitution and how critical it is to our nation as a whole and our freedoms. I mean, we have freedoms here that other countries don't have. And so I think for all of us, we want to keep those freedoms because that's what our founding fathers fought for. Think about it. They fought. They gave their lives for our freedoms. And now here we are as an individual, as a people. We're so unaware of what they did. I remember, because like I said, I'm a historian, Abigail Adams said to her husband in a letter, I hope that people understand the sacrifices we're making, that people in posterity understand the sacrifices we're making for their freedoms. Think about that. Most people are unaware. Unaware. You would not believe. Right. So what I'd like to encourage people to do is just go out and vote. Share the message with your friends and family. Get people out there to vote and be vocal and share what your concerns are and tell the truth. There's a book I read a couple of months back. It's called Live Not By Lies. Oh, I want one. Okay. Is it online? Excuse me? It's online. It's not online, but it's called Live Not By Lies. And it's an author who talks about history and how we have to be vocal about the truth. Nicole, we have to be vocal about the truth. We can't pretend that we agree with something when we don't. We can't pretend that's okay if it's not. I mean, look at the direction that our children are going in. They're stealing our children's childhood, their innocence. This is huge. We're losing our children. Yes, this is a huge thing. If you care about children, if you care about your children or other people's children, if you don't have any. Children in general. In general. Yeah. And then you need to definitely speak up and say something and share your concerns and vote appropriately and educate yourself. Get your information from the right sources and then go out and make your voice heard. Wow, Maria. I am so happy to have you here educating the nation, the community, our family, discussing our family values. Thank you so much for being here and then to stop by at ACMI. Well, thank you for having me. It's really a privilege to be here and get to meet all these wonderful people, all the people that work in the studio who work hard to make this happen. Thank you, everyone. All the professionals that are here. This is hard work and you're doing hard work, okay? Thank you. People are out there telling the truth, providing a medium for others to tell the truth. You're taking a step. You're taking a step. That's wonderful. Thank you. Yes. With your help with ACMI allowing us to have a platform to do this. Yeah. I just want to share quickly my Facebook page. It's Maria Pia Perez for republicandstatecommittee.com. Maria Pia Perez for republicandstatecommittee.com. And I had to get myself on Facebook so I could have a medium. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure having Maria Perez and the show. We're going to close review at ACMI. Thank you so much. Come back again. All right. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's a pleasure having you. Thank you. Thanks. ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help.