 Welcome to Longmont Voices and Vision, a project of Longmont Public Media. In the midst of the darkest period in our lives, when we're bombarded 24 hours a day with news of the coronavirus and the human and economic carnage it's causing in our society, we're challenged to cope with our fears and anxieties, we're remaining hopeful about what lies on the other side of this crisis. This project presents an opportunity for Longmont residents to share with others how they're adjusting to new realities of social distancing and the kind of future they hope to experience on the other side of the crisis. I'm Tim Waters, host of these conversations in a Longmont Public Media Volunteer. In this series, I'll be asking Longmont residents, many of them your friends and neighbors, three questions. What are you doing to get through this crisis? Even though we cannot be together right now, how are we staying connected to friends and families? And what's the future you are hoping to see and experience on the other side of this crisis? I hope you'll stay with this series and enjoy listening to your friends and neighbors and learn from them how they're getting through and what they're looking forward to in a new reality on the other side. Kathleen McGoy, thank you for lending your voice and your vision to this Longmont Voices and Vision Project. To get started, tell us a little bit about who you are, who you are in your background, what you're doing. Thank you. Thanks for having me on this interview. My name is Kathleen McGoy and currently I'm the Executive Director of a nonprofit in Longmont called Longmont Community Justice Partnership. We offer restorative justice as an alternative to the criminal justice system here in partnership with police. So with that background, you know I'm going to ask you three questions. The first of the three questions is in this unprecedented moment in human history that we're in right now. How are you getting through? Great question. So at this point for me and the whole staff at LCJP Longmont Community Justice Partnership, we are really tied very closely to the values and principles of restorative practices, which really comes down to relationship. So in restorative justice, we look at what can we do when relationships have been harmed? How can we repair those relationships? But there's much more to it than just the repair that happens after crime. Restorative values and principles can also be applied to promoting healthy relationships, building healthy relationships on the front end. So as an agency as soon as the virus, the pandemic broke out, we started thinking, you know, what tools do we already have so that we could support people who are feeling isolation and anxiety and uncertainty. And fortunately, our tools can be adapted to connect people virtually and online. So one of the things that I mean, I would say we're doing two main things as an agency right now. One of them is we can continue accepting cases from police. When crime takes place, we can still move forward with the restorative justice process, but we've just shifted the whole thing to digital platforms. So we're utilizing our volunteers as facilitators to bring together victims and offenders, police officers and community representatives to look at what needs to be done to make things right. And the second thing that we're doing is proactively offering circles that are just relationship building circles. We call them connection circles. Every Friday we have an appointment that volunteers, LCJP volunteers can plug into, and it's just a time where a question is asked, and each volunteer is each participant is asked to give their answer. And in both of those settings, what we're finding is that people are so grateful to have this opportunity to tell their story, to be heard, and to be able to find empathy and validation in shared experiences, even when we're physically separated. Well, that's a nice segue to my second question. And then in a moment of unprecedented physical separation and social distancing that we've never experienced in any of our lifetimes. How are you staying connected with family and friends? I am just on a lot of video conference calls and phone calls. I have friends in contacts, both within the restorative justice community and other networks that I know of where people are really becoming very collaborative. So for example, in restorative justice, I just am in touch with a European forum of restorative justice practitioners who's asking, hey, can we get on a zoom call because countries throughout Europe are actually considering how they can offer restorative practices to their communities on an online platform. So that's something that is has always been important for LCJP and me personally to make sure that we are sharing our resources sharing our successes so that others can use these tools and now we're just doing that in a different way instead of you know maybe meeting in person or talking about how to connect in person. We're just really using the same tools, but in a virtual way to promote connection and any sort of resilience building is really what it comes down to at this time. So again, that's a nice segue to my my third and last question resilience is a way to kind of spring into this next question and that is, it's safe to assume I believe that whatever was normal before this pandemic won't be normal after the pandemic that what there will be a new normal. Whatever that new normal is is one we're going to help to create together so for you. What's the preferred future. What would you like that new normal. What would you like to see and experience in that new normal. Yeah, I think one of the greatest lessons that that we all globally could take away from this whole experience is one the power of what's possible when we are united in our efforts. And with that the realization that we are all so connected, despite imagined barriers or separations between us that really when it comes to a crisis like this, that the only way for us to get through it is to connect and rely on each other and realize that we have a very shared human experience. So what I would love to see whenever you know whatever the new normal entails is more prioritizing of collaboration sharing generosity. So people sort of letting down their guard based on our sovereign national borders or our perceived cultural differences and really opening up the lines of communication and realizing that especially for our planet. The, the potential of the human race surviving really relies on how we come together to address the earth and how we care, not just for humans but also the natural elements of of the planet so I, I mean, you know, because of my work, I think there's these really we have these tools that we could already use to promote equal voice and kind of dissolve these notions of there's one truth or one person is more right than the other. I actually spoke to the Boulder High School Women's Empowerment Club yesterday, and they were telling me how in their club, they've learned that they can all have different opinions on issues. But what they practice is listening respectfully to different opinions and not trying to prove that the club has to have one, one position that they all get behind and I said you know this is this is the answer you all are doing this informally as a club that how can we really learn to listen to each other and accept that we have different perspectives and different truths and still brainstorm solutions that are mutually beneficial and and ultimately going to be good for future generations. So, lots to think about. Kathleen McGoy thank you so much for your willingness to participate in this project. Take care yourself and your family in this time of social isolation. Thank you so much Tim I appreciate it. Scott Converse. Thank you for lending your voice and your vision to the Longmont Voices and Vision Project. Thank you. Each of these interviews have started with a little bit of information about the interviewee. So, you know, when people watch this over time, it'll be good to know who they're hearing from. So tell us about Scott Converse. Well, I grew up in Longmont, graduated from high school from here, went off into business land, worked for a bunch of large corporations and did some startup companies and retired probably coming up on 10 years now. When I retired, I moved back here to be near my family and we started some stuff like Tinker Mill which is a makerspace here in town so I was the original founder of that and when the Times call left Longmont, they're building, we started the Longmont Observer, which is a nonprofit newsroom here in town. And about three or four months ago, we made a bid on the Cable Access, PIG, Public Access Education Government TV, contract with the city and surprise won that. So we are now running Longmont Public Media and that's what I've been doing now. I'm the general manager of Longmont Public Media and still for the time being the publisher of the Longmont Observer. And we're connecting these interviews because Longmont Public Media exists in one that contracts. Yeah, that's the truth today. And this is one of those contributions. So thanks for your contributions, the many contributions to the community as well as this particular project and that Longmont Public Media LPM supports this kind of record we're establishing an outreach to the community. So on the record, you know I've been asking people three questions in these interviews. The first is in this time of really unprecedented physical distancing and social or physical isolation and social distancing. How are you getting through what is this unique time in our history. Well, yeah, it's kind of weird. I'm an introvert by nature so in a way it's kind of fun from from just being able to isolate nobody thinks it's weird. I kind of like my alone time but at the same time, we spent a lot of time doing things out in the community and that has been very strange and dealing with this has been very odd. We as you know, took over the Carnegie building, the old library building, and when we took this contract on and that had become really quite a hub of activity and a lot of it social, because it's a media maker space it's open to the public it's available to anybody who wants to join and wants to start using equipment and studios and learning how to create media. And that stopping kind of so abruptly was sort of a shock. And it, I had not felt lonely in a while and that was, I felt, I felt lonely the last couple weeks and it's been sort of strange I really miss the interactivity of having that space so dealing with it really, you know, things like this. There are awful lot of zoom and Webex and Google Hangout meetings going on. You know, that's one place that we spend time but it's really it's been very weird and kind of disorienting, I guess is the best word for it. Before when I had a choice of when I wanted to be alone and when I wanted to go do stuff. It was, you know, it was fun but now that I don't have that choice I need to not go out when I want to, you know, just go out driving or go out storm chasing or whatever might be. It's a very strange feeling it's it feels constrained really does. Well, your reference to all the zoom meetings really kind of segue to the second question. None of us have ever experienced the isolation and the kind of disconnections that we're experiencing now. So we're all trying to find ways to stay connected to family and friends. So what's that look like for you how are you staying connected to family and friends. This is one way we're doing it now. So we do a fair amount of this Google Hangouts is actually really good for just one on one quick stuff you just do it very quickly you can do it on your phone your iPad your computer. And also, I hate to admit it but Facebook. It is it is a useful tool, even though it has some weird things about it that are not so good. And texting do lots of texting with people and obviously phone calls I do a lot more check ins. I've been getting phone calls from people that I haven't heard from in a long time which is very interesting like are you okay. Do you need anything. A lot of that going on and I do it with people to a lot you know is there can I help. I think that it's in an interesting way it's actually brought us all closer together in some ways. And it's surprising to me, and in a good way. I mean I've heard from people that I haven't heard from any literally years. You know you see him on social media and there's like that ethereal connection that's not really real. And then out of the blue now in the last few weeks I've gotten calls from a couple dozen people that like people I worked with an Apple computer 25 years ago and stuff like that it's just very surprising to me and actually kind of good in a way it's bringing us together. One of the things I've certainly heard through these interviews is that while we're disconnected in so many ways the conditions have brought us together in other ways that are equally unprecedented as as the isolation. The third of my three questions is really based on the assumption that whatever was normal before the pandemic. There's going to be a new normal. There's going to be a new normal out of this. There'll be another side or another side of this pandemic in whatever the new normal is. The assumption is it's likely going to be different. Life will be different for all of us. So the question really is what would you like to see in that new normal. What's your preferred future. What would you like to see and help create on the other side of the pandemic. The initial thought was to go into the dystopian view of what could what it could be like. But I would rather not think of that and I would rather try to build something which I do believe we can do. I think that the way to do that really is to start caring for each other a little more. I think that there have been a lot of realizations of shortfalls and shortcomings in our general societal structure that probably need to be addressed on a national scale. Things like healthcare you know when you've got 20 million people who all of a sudden don't have a job which is tied to their healthcare. During a pandemic you got to think about is this a good approach you know stuff like that that's very important. So really taking how do we take care of the people that we're left out here and there are a lot of people that were left out. So I think that I think that that realization with a lot more people is is becoming much more real and I think that you'll see a lot of changes along those lines in terms of what we can do locally. I think that better communications I mean what we're doing with LPM is creating like part of the information infrastructure of our community making it much more open and available to people. This is a perfect example. This is something that would not have happened with the old regime and the old way of doing things. And we want to enable this kind of stuff. And I think this pandemic has actually made that more likely to happen the fact that you see for instance the late night TV shows host guys. This is what they're doing for their shows they're doing from their house literally their houses where their kids running around in the background. I mean that talk about people connecting while being remote. I think you'll see a lot more than and that's something that that the media world does specialize in and I think people also are understanding the importance of engaging with medium so using it more but also stuff like distance learning. I think you're going to see a lot more education happening not like this exactly but you're going to see a lot more people realize that they can go to college this way they can you know if if somebody is sick they can stay home and still finish school this way. There's all kinds of stuff that people are realizing that very much that changed in a big way because of this isolation that we've been forced to go into. So I think you're going to see some really good stuff happen there. I do want to see our cities get better at communicating what's going on and to engage more. I do know that like for instance our city council last night I heard that there's a was it an 8 million dollar shortfall was that the number 8.5. 15.3 million as of this morning 15.3 million dollar shortfall. That's a big number that's something that people are going to go what does that mean to me so what so I'd like to know what does that mean and what is the city going to do and how can we help. I would like very much to help in terms of getting the city back on its feet. And I think that more people are going to be interested in doing that than they were before, especially when they see services that the city used to be able to do and afford, not be able to do an afford anymore like Harold was saying our city manager last night that Boulder and I think was it loose filler Lafayette and started off. It started laying off employees city employees which you know surprised me. I have heard from teachers in school districts who are afraid of the same kind of thing. Although I think it's less likely because property taxes didn't go away. Although property taxes will probably drop with valuations now so you know who knows. So we'll see what happens there. That's a lot. And it fits into some of the other patterns we've been hearing in. I hope residents not only on this interview but will have a chance to kind of absorb those perspectives and those aspirations across the interviews of their friends and neighbors who have been part of this project. So thanks to along my public media for supporting it. Thanks to you for your contribution. And when we can all re engage face to face. I'll look forward to to our past continuing to cross out on a regular basis. Thanks guys. Look at yourself and your family. Thanks. Gordon and Pam Pedro. Thank you for lending your voices and your vision to this project to get started. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about who you are. I'm Gordon. I'm a retired 17 year old white guy. And I've had the privilege of basically following the distance guidelines that the health departments have been putting out and continue to do so. I'm Pam and married to Gordon obviously I'm a retired therapist here in town and I'm involved in recovery cafe, which is informing a lot of what I'm thinking about right now. Yeah. Well one day hopefully when people have all learned about recovery cafe, and that will have grown into the kind of asset in this community that that we know it has the potential to be insured. Folks will recognize immediately and Gordon I'm not going to let you off the hook without acknowledging your, your 20 years of service to this community as our city manager so whoever watches this one day has to appreciate that as well. Well, three questions that I'm going to post you. The first of those is, in this time that's unprecedented in any of our lives. People are trying to figure out and how to make sense and how to get through and my question you is how are you getting through this time of unprecedented. Well, I'll start I think we've really been trying to stay connected with friends and family. We've gotten really good at rummy cube and puzzles. We've been checking in with our older friends, especially those who live alone at our widowed. I'm getting some exercise. I'm really enjoying doing some reading and writing and thinking about you. You know, I would add that in order for me to stay centered. I have to have exercise so I begin my day early in the morning with five to 10 mile hike, and that starts my day off most of the time. And in addition to what Pam does. I am involved with a couple of small groups of people who think and discuss things and so we are engaged in various ways of sharing articles and ideas, and then we get together and talk on zoom once the ball. So in a, in a time that we've never experienced in terms of the physical separations and social distancing. Now we're all expected to honor. How in that context are you stay connected Pam you answered a little bit of that question that with friends and family how are you staying connected with all, all those who you want to be connected. When we come to love zoom, we really have to use that in some FaceTime our son knows how to include all of us in a FaceTime chat and so we've been doing trying to do that on a regular basis for our kids. I belong to a group of about seven friends who are on a text thread, and we just check in all day long with each other someone will send a joke someone else will say can you guys pray for me and fall the part right now that kind of thing. There are four younger women that I mentor that are in different states, said we're still staying in touch through either zoom or phone calls on on a bi weekly basis. The other day we had a couple drive into our driveway and they sat in your car and we stood on the lawn and just visited for a while. I think we're still learning how to creatively connect. I got lots of that involved in more phone calls and normal because usually my way of communicating with sitting in coffee shops, or in a small bar and having a beer and talking with folks. So now it's more needing to connect on phone. We do have a situation where a couple of my friends are really compromised physically. So they, but they want to get together. So they have large backyards we go separate by 10 feet sitting in the backyard in the sunshine and we just have conversations because they would like to have those conversations. Well, it's safe to assume, I think that whatever, whatever we settle into as normal on the other side of this pandemic, life is going to be different. Whatever the new normal is will be unlike what normal was before. So the third question is, what would you like that new normal to be what would you like to see an experience what your preferred future, as we move forward to whatever new normal is. Well, we kind of agreed to go that I go first on this when I have given so much thought I love this question to him. Thank you. Because I first realized that I've got some realizations that are, they're not new but they're deeper to me right now and some some increased hopes. Going with your greatest hopes rather than greatest fears that they kind of fun to think about. I think so let me just talk my realizations have been, I've been surprised at how much I'm enjoying the simplicity of this life. Just the being home and spending time together and being in the yard and having time during the day to really call the people I want to call or do the things I want to do. I'm finding that I can live with a lot less as we've been forced to look at what's essential. And what isn't essential even as I've needed to order some things just thinking how essential is this and having that be a part of my paradigm that it hasn't been before. Another realization that I've had that's really hit me is, as I am sheltered in this safe home and as I'm washing my hands several times a day in my own sink. Going to bed in my own bed, having food delivered to our home because I have an internet and I can order it. I think I've become more and more aware of how privileged I am. And that has increased my awareness of the vulnerability of the people who don't have those things in our world in our community around the world. Many people are homeless, mentally ill, they're in recovery. Our elderly friends who are on fixed incomes who don't know how to use the internet. And I think that as I said my recovery cafe involvement has now put faces and names and stories behind some of these precious people. And I've been realizing that in our most prosperous time in decades we have totally failed this vulnerable population. And I think they suffer in prosperity and they they're in despair when a crisis like this comes. So I think my best hope, the hope that I, and mine's really ethereal like you said I don't have specific, but that as a nation and a state and a community. We can recognize and reprioritize where we're putting our energy. As you think have been fears and hopes Tim I've often thought about first and second things that if we prioritize those things that need to be first, and then focus on the second things we get it all. If we prioritize second things first we often don't get either and I think my hope come November is that we can begin to prioritize the vulnerable in our in our world in our communities, because when they're taking care of them we're free to prioritize what we need to improve the world for the rest of us. And so I think that's going to be a passion that I have as we come out of this is to fight more for the vulnerable and at the risk of sounding political starting to do that in November. A lot of what Pam said is very similar to my thinking the group that I'm the groups that I talked with. We are all basically in the same privilege category. We all have houses, we have the ability to distance ourselves because we don't have to go on the front line and work at a third job or something where we have to interact with artistly feel safe or not. We can wash our clothes and our hands and we can do all those safe things that is a privilege that means and means means that people do not have in this country. And so, I'm hoping we don't lose this opportunity that we have now come together and recognize collectively how we're all in this boat together. And if we don't all succeed, then in a way we all fail but we know which group always fails more than the rest of us. Going there with this recognition of the privilege that we have. I'm going to become a passionate advocate for those who are marginalized. And I just think that any of our society that does not have health care can get education for their children or themselves. They don't have a home and don't have the ability to actually deal with society. They are marginalized and I don't want to see them there from this point forward and I think collectively we should do something about that. Thank you. Congratulations for sure. And thanks for sharing those and who you are and how you're getting through this pandemic. Gordon and Pam Pedro, thanks for lending your voices and your vision to this project. They say take care of yourselves and your family. Thank you.