 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. Donna Lovato, thank you for your contribution to the Longmont Voices and Vision project. Let's start just by learning a little bit about who you are. Okay, I'm Donna Lovato and I'm Executive Director at El Comite de Longmont and we help the Latino community, the non-Latino community as well as the immigrant community with everything from A to Z. So we serve about 1,600 unduplicated clients and about 2,500 people that come through our doors every year. Thank you for that contribution to the community in addition to what you're doing right here. Work is so important. So I have three questions for you this morning, real simple and straightforward. The first question is how are you getting through this current situation, which is unprecedented in any of our lives, probably in the lives of humans at any time? Well, I think it's difficult because I'm a social creature and so having to be home alone is kind of difficult. I thank goodness for computers and cell phones and so I'm able to go outside and sit on my deck and try to do self-care. I think I worry more about my staff, my frontline staff who is making those phone calls because they're talking to people in the community who are afraid and who don't know what the future is going to bring. And so some of them are having financial issues. Some of them cannot apply for unemployment or possibly they will not be getting the stimulus check. And so my staff hears them crying on the phone. And so I think more I'm trying to not only take care of myself but my staff and make sure that they're taking time. So don't do a 15 minute break, do a 30 minute break. Walk around your house, walk around the block. Take that one hour lunch, turn off your phones unless you're calling your family. Do things that are going to make you feel good. Five o'clock, you're done. Unless it's an emergency, it can wait till tomorrow. And so we're really trying to practice self-care, trying to show our clients that things are going to get better. And we're all in this together and they're not alone and making sure that they know that and in Langma, I love Langma, the hour center is giving food. The school district is passing out food. I'm not sure if everybody knows that. So we've been putting stuff on our Facebook. Problem is a lot of our clients don't use Facebook. And then of course there's the food share program, community food share. So mainly trying to make sure that they get the resources they need. We're working with the hour center. Of course we're sending clients there for help with utilities, rent, if they need medication, anything that they may need. And we always leave them with, if anywhere we send you, if they couldn't help, you come back. Because we want to make sure that they're one, treated with respect and dignity and that they're able to get what they need to get through this. Donna, in this time of unprecedented physical distance or separation and that we talked about as social distancing, people are becoming creative in ways to stay connected. How are you staying connected to friends and family as we go through these? Of course with our cell phones. And with FaceTime, I'm told for all these fancy things, you know, we text, we zoom. I've been doing so many Zoom meetings, chats, whatever it takes to stay connected. And I'm learning because typically I've always had an assistant that helps me set things up. And so I'm having to call them and say, how do I do this? How do I do that? And computers are very friendly now. So they say, turn this on, turn that on. And so basically like that in phone calls, we are calling our clients directly because most of them do have phones. And so what we want to start doing, and we're going to be working with Jorge from Amnistad, he's going to show us how to do mass emails with the phone numbers that we have so we can keep in touch with them every day. Well, we're in the middle of a crisis like we've never experienced, but there will be another side. And it's safe to assume I think that whatever the new normal is, whatever that becomes, life will be different than it was before. So given that, I'm curious, what would you like to see? What's your preferred future? What do you want to see an experience on the other side of the current situation? You know, I think the kindness that people are showing now, you know, I'm reading stuff on Facebook that say, if you don't have any food or access to food, call me. I will take your food. I have enough. I will share the kindness that people are realizing that it's not the corporate people or our government officials that are keeping us afloat. It's our janitors and our, you know, our food workers and things of that nature, our immigrant community outpicking in the fields. And I think just a better understanding of the hard work that people contribute to our community, our society. And then just that kindness that I see people, you know, like you said, checks in the mail from people who say, I don't know how to help, but maybe this will help. My staff that's giving it 110%, you know, they always have. But I think now just the coming together of all of us as nonprofits and people in the community that really care about our neighbors, that's what I would like to see and that nobody goes hungry and people have a roof over their heads. And, you know, just their basic needs are covered and just being kind to each other. Thank you for your, again, your contributions to this project and more importantly, thank you for your serious, deep and ongoing contributions to the community. Thanks, Tim. Appreciate you calling me. Okay, so I'm Bob Norris. I've been living here in Long Island for 20 years. But most of my working life is an environmental consultant. And when I retired, I found something that pays much better, not money, but doing volunteer work, which I started with El Comite and Longmont, and has led me to do a lot of work on immigration issues. And that's not completely separated from the issues around early childhood education. So in this unprecedented moment in history, where we are expected to stay in our homes, and there's a lot of anxiety about what's going on, how are you getting yourself through this, through this crisis. Well, in some ways it's much easier for a lot of people than a lot of people because I don't have to worry about a job. I don't have to worry about income. So I am a little bored being at home all the time. I tried walking on a trail and when there's too damn many bicycle people go rushing by. So that's kind of being limited. But like I usually do, I'm spending a lot of my time on the issues that I care about. So I would say it's less impactful for me personally, but certainly very impactful for the people I care about. How are you staying connected with your family and friends through this period of social isolation and distancing? Well, my family all lives at distance. So I'm calling them a bit more often concerned that my brother-in-law has been diagnosed with three cancers and my daughter and grandson and son-in-law all have health problems that are independent of this. So we continue to talk about that and try to find. And friends, yeah, like usual, like you and other people that instead of meeting with, we have Zoom calls and stuff. So that's good. It's, as I say, it's not the same as for people that we're living on the margin and don't have a job. So on the other side of this, I think it's fair to assume that whatever the new normal is, life will be different than the way we knew it before this pandemic. So assuming we'll see a new normal, what would you like that new normal to be? What do you want to see or hope to see and experience on the other side of this crisis? Well, I would like to see this really big reduction in people living in poverty. I would like to see people be able to get medical care and insurance. I would like to see people quit treating other people like the other. I would like to see people in justice and just even day-to-day, if you know many people in the Hispanic community, you know that frequently people just say things that's inappropriate to them, go home and what have you. I would like to see as you and others, let's have quality early childhood education for all children. My wife and I have done a lot, particularly her around homelessness, but it occurs to me that homeless populations is pretty visual to us. We can see people at the street corners and move them. So the lack of early childhood education, you can't look at a child in the playground and say, hey, that kid's getting a good early childhood education and that one isn't. Where that'll show up is later when they don't graduate from high school, go to college or have a good job. So that's way out in the future. And I find it a little frustrating that people can emphasize with that, but do a little. Thank you for participating in this project. Take care of yourself, stay safe, and we'll see you on the other side. Okay, well, I'm glad you did that now before my hair got any longer. But I wanted to point out to you some advice is chocolate will reduce baldness, so you might try that. Okay, take care. Christopher, thank you for lending your voice in your vision to the Longmont Voices in vision project. Let's start this interview by sharing with others just a little bit about you, who you are and your background. And now at my age I got a lot of background so let's shorten it. Right now I am a resident at Aspen Meadows senior apartments, and I'm also a commissioner on the Longmont Housing Authority board. Dean, you know, we're asking Longmont residents to answer three questions in these interviews. The first question is, how are you getting through this crisis in this unprecedented time of social isolation. Using all the coping techniques I ever learned and trying to keep it positive for people when I meet them and kind of reassure this isn't going to last forever and start to look forward to. In the meantime, for me, since I'm a bit of an extrovert, not real fond of being alone, I get out and walk with a couple of other residents and we kind of model with our masks and our social distancing around the neighborhood. And also a couple of other residents and I are sewing the cloth masks that are now pretty much required. With that, you're answered the question one really segues nicely into question number two and that is in a time where we are required to maintain distance from one another. We can't be together how are you staying connected to your friends and family. So I'm a lot of texting and a lot of phone calls. And if I don't call my kids they call me because they're in California and in Oregon. So I'm more concerned I'm very concerned about them and they seem to be just as concerned about me. But I've also called friends all over the country, especially residents that moved out of here. And kept in touch with them. So it's, thank God for the telephone the computer and, and our marvelous technology that we have now. Yeah. It's, it's fair to assume I think that life, whatever the new normal will be that life will be different on the other side of this crisis, at least for an extended period of time. Yeah, so we all anticipating what is going to be like on the other side. I'm assuming as well that some people have a preferred future so what's your preferred future what would you like to see an experience on the other side of this crisis. I, I would like to see lessons learned. It's very poignant to me that with our isolation. We have really started healing our planet. The air is clearing the rivers are clearing. And it's kind of a huge indicator how much damage that are moving around and doing what we have been doing all these decades has damaged their. And I'm hoping there's an activist group somewhere that's really going to sound the bell on this. And I've got my own take on granted, I love us having the national parks but should we limit the number of people that are in it at any given time, not just. And not just during a crisis like this. And there are things like that that that I would love to see more a realization of how much damage we're doing with our constant traffic and needs to do this that the other thing. The other thing that I think is very poignant is our lack of response that many countries have had the lack of timely response. When this started in China. And when it got here, you know we had a delayed response to how devastating this was. And I'm wondering if we should be looking at those states that want to develop a public health system, form a coalition and share resources for public health in the future. This might not be the only pandemic we experienced. And this virus is going to mutate like they all do. So, planning for the future, if we can't do it federally, can we do a coalition of a coalition of states that can share resources and and start developing it that way. And the other thing I that several people have mentioned to me has been an awareness of kindness, and some really hoping that people start focusing more on kindness and caring, rather than criticizing and judging. And that's that's one of the beautiful things that's that's come out of this is there's been all kinds of demonstrations of appreciation and kindness all over all over this country. So, the, another thing that I'm thinking is, why can't we continue for those who are able to work at home to continue to work at home. Corporations can set up virtual private networks and monitor the workers that are at home. And, and kind of bridge that can I trust them to really do work at home. So that, and that's another way of cutting down the traffic, instead of everybody having to be at work at eight or nine o'clock in the morning. Another issue that another resident brought up to me was highlighting our blue collar workers, because they're carrying the load right now from nurses down to garbage collectors. Let's face it, as well as grocery clerks and what have you, they've got to be out there. And we haven't given them much respect in this country. Like if you're not a billionaire, you know, you're not worth and, and we need to change that philosophy, no matter what job you're doing. We want that we want to do some pay for it, but we also want some respect, if you're doing the job well, no matter what the job is, that should bring respect and not degradation. Jean Christopher. Thank you again for participating in this project. Take care of yourself and stay safe. Thank you Tim for inviting me. And you stay safe too.