 Hi, this is all things LGBTQ our interview show We'd like to acknowledge that we're taping in Montpelier, Vermont, which is unseated indigenous land And we'd like to welcome you to the show if you have any suggestions about who you like to see interviewed here Please let us know and we'd be glad to check it out Thanks for coming, and I hope you enjoy the show Welcome back to our interview show and since I am sitting here with the picture of the State House behind me That might mean I found somebody With whom we could talk about what happened during this year's legislative session the successes the things that didn't quite make it through and What it was like to try and Legislate in the era of COVID and I can't think of a better person than someone who's becoming a Frequent friend of all things LGBTQ This is representative John Kalaki of South Burlington. Welcome John Okay, it's so nice to be back on this show as you know I adore the show and the three of you are like my heroes So it's an honor and a privilege to be with you. Thanks. Thanks and we have so much fun taunting you at times and in engaging in conversations that We might not have that same kind of conversation with other politicians, you know being an LGBTQ plus Format show and talking with an out legislator Entirely different type of conversation than just your cold journalist politician Tell me your politics, but I'd like you to start with What was it like when all of a sudden? COVID shut down the legislative process and you needed to come up with a new way of doing business Well, not only a new way of doing business and we went into zoom pealier where we started meeting on zoom and it was With our committee work. It actually worked very well because it was intimate We had our witnesses come in on the floor with 150 people Sometimes it was like a bad Saturday night live skip because people would forget to turn off their cameras And suddenly you would see them sweeping their floors behind us and it's like no turn off your camera. They're doing, you know or I Can't tell you how many times can you hear me? Can you hear me? You're muted Keith. You're muted. Yeah, so it was it the kind of reverb of that happened You know the hallway conversations in the house in the state house behind you there For a citizen legislature were pretty important for me I could go to somebody and say You know, I'm not explain the spill to me explain the backstory so I understand it and that was kind of missing unfortunately, but you know we the committee work continued and I'm I sit on general housing and military affairs and so Housing is a really big important issue for us and the amazing part of COVID is that We had to make sure people who were homeless were safe and So we could not keep them in shelters because that was a congregate setting So we moved people into hotels and at one point there were over 2,000 people Didn't move tells 250 no kids So in a way COVID got us to understand almost put our arms around this is our homies population in Vermont Which is a big number, but it's a doable number And part of the the great thing I was able to work on in my committee was an 85 million dollar plan with some of the federal money We got to rehouse many of those people. So we're capital investments To buy and renovate there's renovate the shelter so that they can have more social distancing in them There was a marriage program for people who were behind in the rent We we stayed for mortgage foreclosures. So we have money to help people with fat. We also, you know many people have a Lot of different issues and so you can't just take someone who's been homeless move them into a Hotel room and think that they're safe. So we also had to build wraparound services in and To think that this 85 million dollars could actually change the paradigm For almost me. It's not going to eliminate homelessness, but it's going to go a big way. So that was kind of an amazing Positive outcome of this the I had noticed that your committee in particular toward the end of this session Was spending a great deal of time on an affordable housing, which I'm taking are the initiatives that you're sharing right now Yes, you also you also did a great now great deal of work on recovery houses well that that was a bill that I worked on for over a year and The heartbreak of the session is that was the very last bill that was on the calendar and I had to After we voted the budget and sent it to the governor I had to ask the speaker to recommit it back to committee So what it was a bill that was really to expand recovery beds in Vermont We really need about a thousand beds and we have about 200 beds and we really need like a Recovery home for women with children and you know, we there's so many needs in the recovery community and we work so hard on this bill and So, you know, I don't have opposition in November So hopefully I'll be reelected and I will reintroduce the bill and make it a better bill You know, I'll listen to the advocates again and people who've lived experience because it is that a sad thing about COVID is we now have a record number of deaths from Overdoses in our state and part of that is what's happened during COVID So it's it's it's a crisis that I want to keep working on and didn't make it across the finish line But I'm a freshman legislator. So in my sophomore term, maybe I'll get it across the line We're gonna be there and rooting for you because Looking at the LGBTQ plus community and the impact of addiction on our communities and the total lack of resources And what you're describing is essential. So what are the other things that you saw toward the end of the session? that Made it to the finish line that you were pleased about I know before we started formally taking we were talking a little bit about the bills specific to policing which all of a sudden has come into the forefront and particularly around use of force and This would be what was the bill introduced by Debbie Inkram s1 19 You were there for that last volley back and forth about this bill There were amendments happening What was your sense of what it is that the legislature was able to accomplish? relative to Vermont law enforcement and use of force Well, you know it when we went back into the special section We thought we were going to prioritize only cold things But then you know it was clear that we really had to address some of the criminal justice reform that and these bills have been vetted through the whole year. That was really important and Also the house as a body our members our hundred and fifty members have yet to deal with our own systemic racism and We worked on abenaki issues in my committee and things that people said when we talked about Renaming Columbus day indigenous people's day They people didn't even realize the outrageousness of some of the things they said So when we really brought this issue forward and really looking at let's understand racial bias our police courses and really let's set a standard of what excessive use of forces and and and again the conversations were unbridled and Very disappointing. So there's a lot of work to do. I think that particular bill that Senator Inkram put forward is important You know, it's we have the Department of Public Safety and the executive director of racial equity comes back and really works statewide to get standards together and works with all the police departments It's essential that we do this we have to address the bias because we look at who's in our jails Who's getting stopped and it's not a level playing field It is clear and the more data we get the more damning it becomes and so these these bills are important We'll see if the governor signs them We do not have a veto session planned. So the body's passed them. We'll see what the governor does with that we did We did overwrite the veto on the global warming solutions Act, which which was a victory You know, I think it's important that our state looks at these issues Again with the COVID emergency We couldn't let the climate crisis just go away because it's not going away and we really had to set something up So I felt really good about that Another big issue was act 250. It's been 50 years of looking at zoning and development and stuff And in the house, they worked on this comprehensive bill It went to the Senate and it came with only two sections for trails and for a force fragmentation That passed It's a step So it's you know, it's like, okay, we didn't get the whole thing. Well, we got a step I think that I'm really happy with is In my committee, we do a lot of issues around employer and employee Relations and we did strengthen unions for people working in the public sector. So that was a bill that came in Was with us then I went to the Senate and then it changed and we got a piece of that We also did a zoning bill where municipalities cannot do It's more inclusionary housing So you can't say it's the character of the neighborhood that we can't have this kind of development here. And so Again, it's a small step But it's an essential step that we have, you know, our communities more integrated our downtowns more robust And we can't just say it has to be these beautiful Victorians, you know So a lot of small steps with some of those bills But, you know, the enormity of COVID so I We appropriate one point two five billion dollars of COVID relief money and I would say the house The Senate The governor and his staff where everyone was incredible. We collaborate We work together on this in a way that you know, I'm a freshman but I hadn't seen that working before and We had to get that money out in about six weeks and then we had to re re-look at it and That has allowed us Because for a small state we got this amount of money and that's a lot of money for our state to do It allowed us then when we came back to finalize the state budget, which is seven point one five billion. It's balanced We didn't go to the reserves. We paid our retirement contributions And and we continued programs so COVID kind of helped us rebalance all of this moving forward Your head after this will be Harder on our budget because the income is still down the economy is not coming back back as fast as any of us would like And this is this is why you have to keep coming back And thank you and and as we run out of time Oh my I want to sort of end this by acknowledging that you and their friend Aiko Otaki did a short that is made here Available on pvs called to elegies and it's a conversation that both of you had with your mothers who have already passed over and sort of your final thoughts And I want to thank you for creating something that personal and then sharing that in a public venue And with that I'm going to say I want you to come back just so we can talk about the artistic and expressive John Kalaki And so we get to talk about raindrop The pony my heart but listen the next time I come back. I am interviewing you I'd be incredible women the three of you That's I told you that was my fantasy. I'm doing that. We're going to plan that so next time I'm on your show We're turning the tables here and I'm going to be asking you questions deal and with that Thank you. I'm for warms and and And I'll start getting my wardrobe upgraded Thank you Okay, hi, I'd like to introduce our audience to john scaliati and salon and distinguished career in filmmaking And is an activist and is involved in many other areas Of our community. Welcome john Well, thank you. It's great to be here Um, you know, I was very excited. I I know we're friends on facebook And I love your posts all of them Especially about the governor But um, I guess we'll leave the political talk for another time. Oh, sure So I'm going to read your um Your bio for the audience So they can get a little bit of an idea about who you are if they don't know and I can't imagine they wouldn't but you know um During the 1970s John was the news and public affairs director of wbc and 104.1 in boston For his work in radio, he was awarded two major armstrong awards in the early 1980s He attended new york university film school. He he created in the life for pbs This was the united states first gay and lesbian national series He produced in 1985 a documentary film before stonewall Which won the audience award at la outfest and two emmy awards He directed a companion piece after stonewall the film won a golden eagle And the audience award in the los angeles gay and lesbian film festival He's openly gay his partner for 24 years was the late journalist andrew Copkind Together they produced the radio show the lavender hour So you are quite the man. I gotta say I've been involved with a lot of media over the years and I've really enjoyed it And you know, it's really funny because um I think in uh, and and I were uh in madison wisconsin when we first saw your film before stonewall And we were with uh one of the producers And uh andrea weiss Yes, it was the the audience was just hysterical and it was crowded and it was such a beautiful thing So thank you for doing that Um, how did you end up in vermont? Well, that's kind of interesting my uh late partner andrew copkind Uh, so he was a journalist in washington dc And had been a little bit older than me and was doing a lot of anti-war and also covering the african-american experience in the south Selma, you know with john uh, uh, john louis and all that And then the war came and he was covering the weather underground and the chicago wait and all that And he got pretty tired At some point and somehow ended up at a conference in goddard college Yes, that's right near us. Yeah, and then came down a friend had a house in vermont And he came to live in it and he ended up in those days commune started very quickly and he ended up starting a commune in southern vermont Uh, and there were a lot of communes in the area and then his commune became a woman's commune And he he started driving around at a motorcycle and he met me I had been in the anti-war movement in washington and then I came up to his house sort of Well, we met in the fenway if you want to be honest I remember the fenway from boston Oh, I see and then we ended up staying together and uh, the first thing we did was go visit all the communes in vermont We then worked a little bit in boston at wbcn and then This one of the communes collapsed and this house that i'm sitting in now Was uh up for sale and so we we bought it It was cheap in those days to buy Not from vermont not so expensive. We bought it and it was more like a summer place But as time went along andi being a writer and me doing films that allowed me to have a lot of uh Flexibility of time We started staying here quite a bit and then andi died in 1994 And I gave up my apartment at that time in new york and moved here full time and and Built a studio and an editing room in the barn and and this became my place where uh, I did most of my work After stone wall was produced upstairs dangerous living we did As far as born with uh with uh, tommy de palo So a lot of stuff started happening here in vermont and you do a film festival down there. You've been doing for a while You know as I got a little older a lot of people wanted to talk to me about Their skills and how they could improve their work So after andi died we started a nonprofit called the cop kind colony named after andi And a lot of filmmakers started coming and we started showing work and we And I thought oh well, you know southern vermont Needs a little gay and lesbian film festival And so I spoke to a Yeah, a lot of people in in town and I put together a small film festival and it's called sinna slam And we've been doing it now what for 10 years And uh, we also bring filmmakers to have workshops so I I deal a lot with younger lgbt folks about Their works critique and so that's part of my work now too is is is help and especially fundraising helping them Get a foothold so that their work can be done too And and like you were saying, um, it's really important that we get the word out to young people whether they're doing their own work or whether they need some historic um Idea about what the you know, what what happened before them so that you know We will so they will remember they'll have a history to kind of go back to One of the sad things for younger gay and lesbian people is that they really Don't have that much access to history Um, it's it's you know, it's the kind of thing that you really don't want to sit down and watch a documentary Honest with you until you do and then once you do you realize oh, this is fantastic. I'm the same way It's hard to get me to sit down and watch a documentary, but once I do I love it So that is that's an impulse. That's a little difficult the narrative which I've been pushing a lot which is you know Drama and stuff like that Hasn't really covered much history. We had Harvey milk And uh a few so I think we need to find ways to get Those stories out that excite people so that they know that uh, we have a glorious history of struggle and um, I think if people had a Better understanding of that They might even Realize what we could lose because we're not living at a time. We saw very quickly Where you know, but Donald Trump was you know, no transgender people in the military You know, and then there's talk about uh getting rid of married couples in the supreme court, you know All this stuff can go away rather quickly And if you look at our history, it has we you know in um In weimar germany It was a large beautiful gay and lesbian community. It was very strong. There were poets and music and art and drag shows and it was really impressive And then the nazis came And it got wiped out To the point where they burning stuff in you know and bonfires And so it happened really quickly historically how fast that could happen really it was like eight years And all of a sudden it was all gone And so it is important that we know that that we know that Liberation is a constant battle you can't Really allow people To stop us I'm sorry. There's a phone. Okay It'll ring three times and stop That's fine Yeah, so it is really important and one of the things we tried to do on the show is um Get a lot of older folks on um Yeah, so we can record some of the history of people from our generation So we have some kind of record at least um We want to contribute to having that record of people who were in the movement Before and after stonewall so um, I appreciate all the work you're doing. It's really really important stuff And for us in Vermont, I just want to add Linda for us in Vermont, you know, we have a pretty amazing history of lgbt uh already we are like foremost in terms of being the first state to make it legal for uh lgbt people to get Kind of married or the wedding car marriage, but first legal legal thing that was ever done And uh, so that history is an important history to remember But what was most important is how it came about We had something like 2000 lesbians in who knew in the Montpelier Um for that vote, you know, the most people ever came Montpelier For a civil I mean ever come for an issue came around civil unions and came to the capital so That showed power that showed that we have a lot of numbers here in Vermont Yeah, and I think I read somewhere John that um, I think per capita we have the most Gay and lesbian people in the country live in Vermont. I I believe or first or second Um, so that's amazing Um So tell us a little bit about like how did you get into filmmaking? I mean, did you like it as a as a youngster and you thought Right away. This is what I'm going to do or did you think it did it come upon you later in in life? I think it came upon me later in life in in college. I was pre-med I had a terrible fear of blood Ha ha ha I couldn't keep going, you know, it was like, oh my god, I would almost faint when I saw blood. So I know this was not a business Even if I wanted Some kind of specialist that did happen With blood you still had to go through medical school What I did was I met Andy and um, and he had been doing a little radio And and doing this new Sound type radio that included all kinds of things. It wasn't just the interview It was sound effects and music and a lot of elements to give it a full contextual sensibility so He then had a friend in, uh, Boston who said why don't you come up and work at our radio station So Andy and I used to do every week a documentary For the radio now. This was a really well constructed Documentary. I mean a half hour. It was really well. It wasn't just talking with someone. It was like actualities it was Music it was a whole bunch of things that line their cells into a rather impressive story And after a couple of years, I said, you know And I was doing still photography and I said, you know, I wouldn't mind Taking that next step in the documentary world Which was film and so I went to nyu You know, they were mostly narrative, but I still Learned something and I spent time and and so I think if you notice our documentaries, they're really filled with sound and they're really filled with context of sound effects so That experience really helped me. I think make the documentary more dramatic and more Emotional so that people have that either humor or Or sadness or whatever it is that they actually you can create a situation where they They really feel it and so therefore they transform them. So they transform themselves Through their heart a little bit more than just through the brain. And so how I got into documentaries well yeah, um I'm gonna we're gonna put it up on our site so that people can go to Where your documentaries are learn more about you your website and we'll put all that We'll put everything up there on the screen during the interview so that people can Go and access whatever it is you're doing And um, you know, I'm ready to start a new film. So good And you know our time is about up John, I'm really I could talk to you for hours. Um, let's do this again. Um, Oh, yes, Linda. This is so great and Send me uh information about when this will be on I'll make sure all my facebook and twitter fans Get a chance and um And when your new documentary comes out, maybe that would be a good time to do another interview Uh, whenever that is good. Yeah, that might be good Thanks, john. I really appreciate it and we'll get together for coffee before after the pandemic. So I bless you. Yes, it'd be great and give my love to Ann. I will. Thank you, john Hi, I'm here with Martha Shelley who's been kind enough to join us today Martha is a feminist researcher and author of historical fiction Um, she's one of the authors and owners of abyssal publications A longtime political activist from Brooklyn After the Stonewall riot she organized a protest march that morphed in to today's gay pride parades or marches um I know you have some thoughts about parade versus march and I share them um Martha was one of the founders of the gay liberation front Her essays poetry and short stories have appeared in many anthologies Um, she's published three books of poetry Crossing the DMZ Lovers and mothers and Haggadah as well as two novels The throne in the heart of the sea and the stars in their courses There's a third novel now the third part of that series um A meteor shower a meteor shower. Yes These are this is a trilogy about the life of Jezebel who was queen of israel in the ninth century bc When I heard you read at the Stonewall Anniversary panel is that what you read from I remember Jezebel figuring in they In the reading I honestly don't remember what I read there. Okay um You now live in portland, Oregon and you're passionate about social justice dancing and mango mousse cake Formally You're in portland. I was wondering if we could start By my asking you to tell us what it's like there with the fires and the demonstrations and Tell us the fires are gone. It's not that we had smoke for a week and a half when it was impossible to go outside um Because the it was so toxic the we have Our air filter machines in our house and we kept them running 24 seven for that week And if I did have to go out like to let the chickens out in the backyard or put them to bed or let the dog out to pee Uh, we put on an n95 mask and then get back in the house So you have chickens? Yes. Do you farm there? Yes It within the city limits of portland We bought a double lot some years ago and the backyard we've turned into a little mini farm. That's great Yeah, so uh That keeps us busy And uh, how about the street activism there in portland that stopped during the smoke because it was you know Too dangerous to go outside but once the Um, smoke cleared because it's been raining Uh, then demonstrations started again The news reports around the country have it made it sound especially the administration have made it sound like there's rioting and looting and burning all over In fact, the demonstrations have been confined to small a small area around downtown near the police Uh headquarters And the rest of the town has been really quiet and people just go about what they're doing There have been occasional demonstrations in different parts of town that haven't Been involved with uh any kind of looting or rioting or anything just you know people marching up and down with Banners and chanting and stuff and when I have gone by I would just you know, hunk my horn if I was driving or raise my fist or something Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So it's been largely peaceful. Oh, yeah What portland was a big spread out city the demonstrations have happened in like mostly a two block area Uh, huh. I didn't know that I've never been there Um, tell me how did you happen to move west in 1974? As we said you're from brookland You did a lot of activism important activism in new york Okay, what happened at the end of 74 is um Life wasn't going that well for me personally. I've been in love with someone um, and that didn't work out and I had a broken heart and then I had visited the bay area more than once and um Was in touch with a couple of the people there And then I decided I was going to move I got in touch with a poet judy grann and he was living in a house with Three other people and said they had an expert room So come on over and I rented a room there So I was a fifth person there um You worked with judy grann to produce crossing the dmz in In other words, lesbians speak out and other books. Is that correct? I was lesbians speak out was published by the um Women's press collective before I actually showed up. It was in process They were you know, gluing the thing together binding it with this little hot glue machine and um They wanted to publish crossing the dmz Which was great with me and I joined the women's press collective and helped put together other books I didn't edit them. I just helped um print them and helped uh, you know collate and Sell and just did whatever office work was necessary and then um at one point went um around the country and raised some money for um for the press collective and When did you move to portland? 2005 um at that point I had I had been involved with my current my wife really since 1997 and um Her kids had were grown They were not in the house anymore And um, we were living in san francisco And it became kind of untenable was getting more polluted more noisy we came home from a camping trip and there was human experiment on our doorstep from homeless people I mean there wasn't any place for them to go so We moved to a house that I had in oakland And it was a drug-infested place So that wasn't really kind of believe there. We took a road trip Decided at looking at different places that we wanted to live in portland. And so we moved One more question. I'd like to ask you before we get to your feminist biography Do you get tired of being asked about stonewall? Yes, and no I think the focus has been mostly on stonewall and Really happy to say what I know to help Straighten out some of the information the misinformation that we get about that history And always to point out that the important thing about stonewall Is not that the riots happened because there had been a riot a couple of years before in a gay riot in san francisco they've been one in Los angeles, but they didn't really change things what happened After stonewall was that a bunch of us organized? We organized the gay liberation front out of that came gay activists alliance And we made alliances with other organizations like the black panthers and women's movement the young lords and so on And that was what changed society So it was all of that organizing that happened after the riots And it struck me as I you know you were involved in the daughters of beletus and You coined the term gay liberation front while working with the madishine society at a madishine meeting And it struck me that maybe there's a parallel between those early homophile organizations and the current movement in lgbt culture to assimilate and A lot develop alliances with corporations and you know a lot of the Even though the marriage movement has been important and a lot of people get married for many different reasons as we know The gesture toward assimilation in some groups Might be part of the motivation for the marriage movement well when I was involved with gay liberation front in those days None of us ever even imagined that we'd have gay marriage And certain and of course Has gay liberation front the last thing I was going to champion and fight for was gays in the military I was anti-military I'm anti-killing people Although I will make a few exceptions And you you can imagine who I'm thinking of I can't But um I was happy about the gay marriage thing because at that point I had already married Had a jewish wedding with my wife And this was very useful to us In terms of um taxes and other things like that fine. I didn't hurt anything Um Health care is another reason health care Inheritance children all of those things those matters. I think these are things that matter in people's lives Um I'm still anti-military not against the soldiers themselves. I'm against what this country does I don't know how many wars we've got going how many countries we have people stationed whose job it is to kill people and No, that's not what I'm going to support right Well, let's turn to your feminist bio if we could um Which is sometimes overlooked um You were part of the lavender menace action in 1970 um Which later became radical lesbians No radical lesbians came first Um good see wikipedia is my source and so please correct me. Okay. What happened was In gay liberation front the women felt that some of our needs were being Ignored overlooked and then we're oblivious and that was specifically when we had gay dances We go to dances and they'd be these guys who are mostly taller than us who are busy Looking for partners dancing with each other staring into each other's eyes Meanwhile straight guys would come in and put their hands on the women and the gay guys weren't Even paying attention so We felt that we needed all women's dances Once we organized that out of that we naturally formed our own organization radical lesbians and the Uh, I think it was the second congress to unite women Our group did that action But it was an action of radical lesbians And you disrupted this now conference and you went up to the stage and spoke and it's such an iconic action Memorialized and she's beautiful when she's angry, right? That's it. Oh, but what uh, what happened was I didn't organize the the the demonstration but when it happened I was of course a part of it and We showed up Looking just like anybody else. We had our 11 diminished t-shirts under other shirts And then one of our members doused the lights of the auditorium so the place was pitch black and when that happened a few of us went and put posters on the walls and All of us took our over shirts off and showed our lavender men's t-shirts And then somebody put the lights back on And I jumped up on the stage and said it's tried to explain why we were here that the panel discussion that had originally been set up was like, you know One union woman one black woman one representing this one representing that but nobody representing us no representing of lesbians and of course Betty for dan was a big homophobe And there was an awful lot of homophobia homophobia in the national organization for women So I asked the audience Would they be Would they want to go up on with the panel discussion the way it had been originally set up or Would they want to hear what we had to say and they all voted to hear what we had to say So we spent the afternoon talking about the oppression of lesbians within the women's movement And what happened the following year was there was a big national conference for now And now voted to include lesbian rights in its platform The rest is history, huh? Really. I mean we that was another way we changed This is society Let's talk About your radio show beginning in 1972 and through 1974 You produced the radio show lesbian nation on new york's w a b a i radio station The library congress says That this is most likely the first lesbian radio show How did you happen to decide to do that and what was the content? The net ray known who was the station manager Asked me to do it She contacted me and asked if I would do it a radio show. So I said sure I um She connected me with this young man whose name escapes me at the moment And he taught me how to use the tape recorder mostly how to edit the tape Which in those days you did with the razor blade You make a little I make little tapes on uh cassette transfer them on to reel to reel And then took them into the editing room and sliced and diced and Cut out parts that you know, I would just edit the tapes. I would add in music And then I would have half an hour show once a week interviews with prominent lgbt people or Yeah, and also, um Okay, there was one time when I covered a Demonstration at the women's building of martial arts And there were these different women doing martial arts and showing their things and what I did was I ran around the room with my microphone and um I You know somebody would show how to do throws and I'd have the mic right down there on the floor and you'd hear this thump And then the woman would say and then you grab um the groin and And you get lots of sound effects. So that was quite a quite a show with discussion to you know, you didn't have the video You could use your imagination Well, you you had early experience with the martial arts when you joined the first women's judo judo class In the first city, yes First world world judo class Can you tell us about that? Yeah, I was 17 And I really wanted to leave home. I was um I wanted to have an independent life I did not want to do what my parents wanted me to do which was find an ex-jewish boy get married have children and You know, I already knew that I was uh different. I didn't know that I was a lesbian. I knew there was something different um And oh, yes, stay a virgin till I get married. Well, I already was not a virgin so My parents would say that you can't live on a woman can't live on her own in new york city. It's not safe One day I saw in the new york post a little two-line ad For this judo class first of all women's judo class opening at the ymca. No ym It was ywca on 51st street in lexington, and I thought that's the answer So I Went down there and registered. I had to say that I was 18 and I just knocked my birth date back by a year Uh enjoying took the self-defense class, which was the first series and um then signed up for the following classes, which were judo and um learned how to you know throw and defend myself Um, I believe me. I'm no expert. I'm no black belt. I'm no great Warrior, but it certainly gave me a lot of self-confidence And when I was ready to leave home, I had that under my belt so to speak And the other thing that happened in that all women's judo classes. I was wrestling around with women and discovered something about myself I one evening I went home with one of these women who was um, you know, we would meet on campus we were both at city college and She was a few years older than me She had gotten married directly out of high school to escape a really abusive family and When she invited me over to her place for dinner Her husband was a civil engineer who got up way early in the morning And then he came home and went to bed I think he went to bed by eight o'clock had to get up at five in the morning or something So we were sitting around the living room and pretty soon we were kissing and It was at that point that I realized how different that was from kissing boys And I was passionately in love with that woman And I knew what I was at that after that night So I got a lot out of judo class Well the time has flown by and we'd like to end with a timely poem if you would be kind enough To read a poem that you selected that will maybe cheer us up or at least give us some strength Okay, uh, this is the poem I wrote the morning after the election 2016 At that point my wife and I were in san francisco Who was rolling in san francisco Awaiting the election returns Not wanting to wait for the bus Walking at the modern 49ers silicon miners So young so white so tall Flush with high-tech bucks and desperation To stay in the game to be seen as taller better looking young forever They spend here's a store uniquely devoted to eyebrows Another only for lashes and upstairs a toenail boutique A shop next block just washes hair and gives it a blow but doesn't cut or die The neighborhood cinemas are now gymnasia the screens replaced with floor-to-ceiling mirrors The ushers with trainers to sculpt those geeky caffeinated frames We spot what looks like a toy store and stop in But it's the ultimate selfie emporium They'll make a 3d full-color resin replica of you or your dog or this moment's mate A doll to display on the coffee table of your studio apartment It's three times the length of your desk and costs about one week's rent Elsewhere on the continent the white but not so young are choosing their representative They're a fusion of wealthy wanting more And the angry poor who could never hope to catch a cup of the golden shower that trickles down on the digitorati I'm gonna have to turn the page here They're entranced with a funhouse mirror version of themselves taller huger a man who gazes at his life-size portrait in oils Purchased with someone else's money Who is his own ultimate selfie who gobbles cash and excretes cruelty? A long ride home We return to our room to sleep until we can know the judgment of mourning And then it comes Black smoke like burning tires pours from the radio The empire rose the empire will be destroyed despair And then we hear the piano a neighbor's child her fingers slow and tentative Stringing the notes together her name is stikva Nadezhda Esperanza That is to say hope Now her touch is sure as she practices the ode to joy Martha Shelley, thank you for joining us Thank you So that was our show for this week. Thank you for joining us And linda and as our weekly reminder do not forget to resist