 Welcome to Celebrate Life. My name is Gary DeCarlas and I am in your house. The inspiration for this series is to show the amazing lives people live. The key word here is live. I hope to capture through interviewing many wonderful Vermonters and even a few people outside Vermont some stories of their lives and experiences to our audience while they are still very much alive. Over the years I have read too many obituaries that left me pondering. Why did I not have a chance to meet this person while they were alive? The goal of this program is to celebrate the lives of everyday Vermonters while they are still with us. Some people will be recognized by many viewers and lots of the people I plan to interview will be known by only a few close intimate group of friends and family. I will guarantee that all the people who are interviewed will have fascinating stories to share with you. You see I am of the notion that everyone has a story to tell. If you would like to be interviewed or know someone who you think would be like would like to be interviewed please contact the CC TV channel coordinator Jordan Butterfield. This information will be posted at the end of the show. Also if you find yourself wanting to follow up on this interview and have a question for the interviewee you can write the CC TV channel coordinator with your question and he will reach out to the interviewee for a response. Make sure you also leave your contact information, telephone and email address. Thank you. Now it's a great honor to introduce Peter Edwards. Peter is a friend, a writer, editor, senior consultant, team, project team leader, logistics professional and a lifelong learner. I've had the honor of knowing Peter for some 30 years at this point. Welcome Peter. Hello. How are you? Good. Now when I first met you you already were working with large federal agencies including the one I was in the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration. Yes. And doing some amazing work at that level but I know there is a whole life free that I'd love the audience to hear about. Where did you grow up? What was your life like as a young boy? Well I was born in a Jewish hospital because my mother had two children in a Catholic hospital and they didn't provide any kind of medication to help with the pain. So when I came around that was the end of that. So I was born at Minora Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Your mother's a smart woman. Well yeah after two kids she figured it out. So I am a, well my siblings and I are first generation Catholic in our family. There's other Catholics in the family. So we went to Perotka schools into high school. My first year in high school was at Bishop Hogan and then I went to a public school in the suburbs of Kansas City. So I sang with a boys and men's choir called the Pontifical Choir of Greater Kansas City starting out as a child as soprano and finished as a tenor. I sang with them for nine years until I went to college. Wow I didn't know that part of you. Amazing. Well I guess we should do an interview then. And here we are. And here we are. So when you think about that, your Catholicism, any impact that on terms of who you are as a man now? Well that's an interesting question. Well I am, I believe in my faith. I believe in God and Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Roman Catholic institution, Roman Catholic Church. I have some different opinions about things because I don't think any one body can speak for any one person in the world. So but I like the traditions. I take comfort in the traditions and the things that we do annually in. So I grew up to be a good Catholic boy. What are some of the differences Peter? What are some of the things that you know even though you're obviously a very devout Catholic that you might feel different about than what the church is talking about today? Well I think my first exposure to something being different was when I went to school in southern Missouri for college and I ran into southern Baptist and who were born again Christians and they were telling me that I couldn't be saved because they actually didn't think that a Roman Catholic could be a Christian. I disagreed with that. And so that was that was very interesting to go through that process. Being something different than what the norm was saying in the the city of Joplin, Missouri. But I enjoyed being a Catholic. I enjoy it's a celebration and so it's something that that is just deep down in me. Did any of the lives of the saints capture your imagination? Um no not really um because I don't have that you know long term history of the saints and what they did and stuff like that. So um no but um I do believe and actually in my religious group now I continue to say the rosary twice a week and we pray for you know the sick the ill and the dying and and even though it's done remotely online because of the the pandemic it's very real and and I'm inspired by the other people in our group who are saying the rosary and I mean I'm just inspired by people who who enjoy practicing their faith. So one of the one of the strange things about it is that a lot of my friends aren't Roman Catholic outside my church. So um when I'm in an all Catholic environment like with my family or my cousins um it's it's such a relief that I don't have to explain things. It's such a relief that you know we can just simply say grace um and and not have that be uh an odd thing or what does that mean or you know that so. Comfortability there. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. When you were a young child uh did you have any heroes any people that kind of looked up to or um well I I realized I lived a pretty sheltered life um and I think that was by design by my mother. I grew up in the 60s um so there was a lot of turmoil and strife and and things going on in the city. I think one of the reasons my mother pushed her children into the Catholic Church was to protect us from the evils of the world and I remember one time um come uh the the school um had all the parents come to give kids rides home and and I was confused I was thinking you know we only live three blocks away why can't we we do that but all the parents were there and and cars and um my mother came home and said that they were rising in in Kansas City and at that time I didn't know what that meant but I think um that that that is the the the it was her way of protecting us from things going going on because um the world wasn't very nice to um African Americans or Black people at that time and um so right so I'm not sure if I'm getting to your answer yeah so but let's let's talk about if you wouldn't mind talk about being an African American in Kansas City, Missouri um did this was the school um did you feel any lesser or more than anyone else there what was it like being in a Catholic school your mother kind of had you go there for the idea of being affected a little bit a little safe from what was happening on the streets of Kansas City did was that actually did that actually happen um yes very much so um and um oddly enough one of the things that that um came about was that um even though there were other neighborhood kids um my mother preferred that we would play with our friends from the Catholic school and and not necessarily the public school kids you know or always tempting you to eat you know a hamburger on Friday or something like that but um no it it was um it was a I had a I had a fairly innocent childhood um and um it doesn't it although it doesn't mean that there wasn't um tragedy or our not tragedy um difficult things but um for the most part I wasn't exposed to that so um what did you want to do when you go on so so to go back to your question about um growing up I I just I just recently discovered with my brother um we moved to our neighborhood the neighborhood that that I had I started kindergarten um in what was the suburbs um and I just found out with my brother like this year that I thought we were the second black family in the neighborhood um he says that we were a third and since he's old I mean the first and since he's older I have to believe him there weren't there weren't many black families in there and as a child I didn't realize that that was odd um everything was just normal so I didn't have that differentiation until later on but at the same time I discovered things about my mother um later in life especially after she died she died in 2003 because of recent events um I realized that my mother was teaching my brother and me how to behave in society when she wasn't there by giving us what everyone knows now as the talk you know do this don't do that but I didn't know that that's what she was doing it wasn't until I was in my 30s and I was talking to some of my friends out here in Washington because I moved out here after college that I realized that not everyone's parents gave them that sort of instruction right and I thought well what's up with that so I I recently um wrote a paper for my church um because I realized certain things for the the my my religious community it's a Catholic community and it is predominantly northern European and and I realized that there are things even though I see myself as an equal and I think they see myself as an equal there's not there's not an equality there because I've experienced things that they've never had to experience um and so that's when I realized that I wrote about um the the subtleties of racism when I was growing up um and how they they come from nowhere and you really don't have any idea of what's going on until you figure it out so um I think it's interesting that I wrote this this essay it was a three-part essay that I've sent to you um that was written in January of 2020 and as you well know um all sorts of things happened in 2020 that um sadly echoed mostly everything I wrote in my essay yeah so as much as your mom tried to protect you from some of the prejudices racism of the day still exists today obviously um you experience that as a young child too yes can you talk about any of that well yes and actually it's something that my sibling my sister and brother I have two siblings my sister's the eldest my brother is is the middle and there's only three and a half year separating us um I'm realizing more and more that their experience with racism has has been there it's just something that we didn't talk about um and so um to get back to your question um which actually I forgot what your question was well I just wanted you know as much as your mom was able and trying to protect you from a lot of the not so terrific stuff um of the time as an african-american young man if you could share an experience or two that you did have with that racism raising its head in your life um prejudice okay a perfect example of that is um um my mom remarried and we moved to Kansas and it's um it's it's right on the um state line so the whole metropolitan area of Kansas City is right there one side's on Kansas one side's on Missouri um I was in a suburban school and um um one of the things that my mother told my brother and me in particular um I guess because she didn't have to worry about her daughter but she always said from the earliest age I can remember after high school you're either going into the military or going into college and you're not going into the military so I always knew I was going to go to college when I went to a suburban white high school um entering into the system um not from you know kindergarten or anything but just entering as a sophomore my guidance counselor was putting me into shop classes or vocational classes and um I never understood why my mother was at the school all the time um well frequently not all the time but frequently to get my my classes changed my curricular changed um and and by the time I graduated I realized that the same counselor who just happened to be a white woman um was directing my friends who were white differently than she had with me wow um and I again I didn't know what was going on or why she did that um but I think the biggest thing that that that kind of tortured me throughout school was that people had a different expectation of me than was described by my mother right um and also um I I I didn't understand it um so there there there's all these little pieces um that that go from you know fourth grade through the rest of my life that that that indicates something's different but you don't know what it is until right and you don't want I mean one of the things I can honestly say is I don't want to think that I'm being treated differently because of my skin color um but at the same time that sets me up so when it does happen I'm bill prepared for it yeah and then have to respond so in a sense your your mother stepped in early in your life and say this is not my son's direction I'm sorry you know he's he's smarter he's outed better than that um my mother set my mother set the standard the expectation of her children yeah and what they were supposed to and what they were going to do so it never was a question for me that I was going to go to college while for other people it was something that they didn't even think wasn't uh something I would consider she sounds like an amazing woman um she was she was she was a head of her time and I think had circumstances been different she could have been well she was incredible but she could have been more so at some point Peter did you absorb that that that life lesson that she gave you about so when people said uh we think you're less than what you think you are you had something inside you to say I'm sorry that's I'm all that I am I'm gonna well I I think that I was fortunate that I lived in a family and a and a cloistered community that had the same goals and aspirations you know all of my all of my friends who happened to be black um all went to college they all had a middle class um um um standard of living so um it it's it was just normal for us it wasn't until I did go to college that I realized that that wasn't that wasn't the real world and and I think that I am so much better because of that naivety because I I I know people who are African-American are of other minority groups who are bitter um because they experience bitterness at such a higher rate than I did um so for me it was it was just a deflection um but I knew I had and within me aware without to know that I'm going this way I you know you may go that way or but I I always I think that the bottom line is I've always had options and some people don't have some people have not been afforded the option to pursue things differently and for those who haven't um it is a it is a huge struggle you know it is a huge struggle and and I've seen that represented in in people who came into our lives and um even though they were introduced to things that were better um a better standard of living a better standard of life they were never able to get over that initial um concept in their body that you can't do this right right yeah you had that built in largely because of your mom that yes you can do this I know you can and I want you to know you can but it it it's more than that it's from my mother's side of the family um that there was history of education being the um the way out of whatever you're doing I saw so that that was really pushed um for I mean that that that was a that was the way it was yeah um and and actually um my my mother's mother was the first to attend an after high school program I don't know exactly what it was called like it wasn't college but it was um an after high school um level of education um and that was in the 20s so um so her my mother's grandmother are my great grandmother um came from a family that knew that that was the way out and that continued um certainly up our way yep yep wow that was the that was the um the phoenix rising that made the made all the difference in the world for my family and me yeah yeah that's quite a legacy there it is a legacy and and certainly not one that a lot of people have been exposed to right so you went to college anything in those college years that stand out for you um where'd you go well I went to three schools um I went to I I decide I when I was growing up I I had a pre-tracked in high school to be an architect um but as a as a high school student um and and sitting at drafting tables I thought I couldn't I couldn't stand you know sitting at a desk for the rest of my life um which I think is ironic now because I've done the entire time so um since I wasn't very good in math um I loved architecture I loved drawing um um I love buildings and design and all that sort of stuff but I wasn't strong enough in math um so the other thing that I was really good at was um writing so um my mother went back to school and um earned a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri Kansas while raising her three young kids and taking care of her grandmother um and every now and then um I would well each of us kids had a chance to go into the studio where she was producing things because she wanted to be a broadcaster so um I since I loved writing from an early age and um actually had a paper that I wrote in seventh grade that um blew my teacher out of the water um and she actually on parents parents a parent something read it to people um and I think they thought it was remarkable but it was easy for me interesting but at the same time I realized that maybe they weren't expecting that much from a black child in a white school but we don't need to go into that so anyway I had I went to school to be a journalist okay so um this was so I graduated in the late 70s high school and I was afraid of going to the south um I was in Kansas City the metropolitan area and um but just a couple hours south um of was southern Missouri was very southern yes so I went to school and dropped to the Missouri because I was afraid to go into the south and I thought as a journalist um I need to test the waters and I thought um a three and a half hour drive was um far enough to test the waters and like the waters I cannot go away um so I went there um that was that was definitely an education um from there I went and studied a year in France because I wanted my second language to be French um I wanted my third language to be German because I wanted to be a foreign correspondent living in Europe reporting for an American company and at that time it was just ABC NBC and CBS yes right um and by the time I finished college um CNN had started but um so I went to a Missouri state Missouri Southern State College in in in Joplin a program in Paris France for a year and then I finished my education at Drake University in Des Moines Iowa with a double degree in journalism and a minor which was almost a major in French wow wow right of I stayed in the Midwest um except for that you know Paris thing yep what made you move to Washington DC um Washington DC is was well it was it was only supposed to be a temporary stopover so this was in the early oh I guess mid um mid eighties yeah because I graduated in 85 it seemed so long ago um um we we didn't have the internet yet um so I thought um we we we did the the thing where you would um type you had this machine where you would punch these things and something would hit a paper and there's a thing involved and you would write a series of sentences um you would fold that and put it into another piece of paper um and mail that to someone which is called a letter so um I thought the opportunity to find a job in Paris was going to be better um in an international city like Washington DC than in um Kansas the Kansas not you that makes sense so Washington was a temporary stopover but um it it's kind of lasts maybe 35 years or so you're you still are yes right well I mean one of the things is I brought a lot of money for Kansas to Washington um only to discover it was not a lot of money for right for Washington exactly so um that sticker shock still um you know it's still yeah yeah it's an amazing difference but that that's that's why I moved to Washington to okay my journalism career for an American broadcaster living in France to be a four-hour respondent so here you are 30 years later you haven't used your journalism I I mean I've benefited from your writing over the years but you have never got to do the actual reporting and journalistic work that you had set yourself out to be but yes I have um my my my education um um interestingly enough in college I had friends who were pursuing a law degree our law career who took journalism as their undergraduate before they went to law school so that they can yeah be able to present themselves in court and argue cases and be articulate and and know what's going on so my my understanding of English my understanding of the manipulation of words and and certainly um being able to write well and and because of my languages because I I learned how to hear um two different languages um um um I have used my journalism and language skills to benefit me in the industries that I've worked in because no question you really have to understand what people are saying and most often what people aren't saying but intend to say and then ask the right questions to get at what they need so um my degree my education has yes um has served me well yes in my industries no I absolutely agree with you yeah um yes because as I said earlier I benefited from those way back and still do um just a little bit yeah just a little any any mentors special people along this path that have been helpful in influencing you supporting you in a sense the way your mom did early on in your life um yes actually um my first I don't know I'm I I was a writer for a an association and we had an annual conference this was in the late 80s we had an annual conference that everyone was where everyone was involved with and um so it was a pretty big deal and in the process um I transitioned from being a writer into logistics and I met this woman who was the convention and visitors bureau um lead in of all places albuquerque new mexico and she she and I was able to have several meetings in albuquerque and we became friends um I mean friends that I knew her family and she was in all that sort of stuff um she put into my mind that I could be an executive director of an association um because of my skill sets and and I believed her um so that that was very powerful um Denise shuttle um from albuquerque um and then and then there's this this this guy let's see his name it escapes me uh dairy or gary the careless or the oh gary the carless the carlos carless something like that um after I start working with him um he saw something in me and um he if I remember correctly um called on me a lot to do new and exciting things that he had wanted to do in his career at the for the federal government so I worked with him and a body of you know people who were all my senior um you know by five 10 15 years um and they showed me another way of doing things so um I actually have quite a few people who recognized something in me that um propelled me to a different way so um I've been fortunate that um um without a doubt um all my clients have really liked the the the the work that I've done for them and um have created opportunities it's not that they created opportunities they saw that together client and and customer that client and and and provider that um we create these things so I've been able to do that successfully throughout my career and I mean it's it's been spectacular yeah oh that's right you think of your career um are there any pearls of wisdom that come out of that I'm one you just mentioned is that um by building relationships with your clients and putting your skill sets out there it's great it's created opportunities for you that um you wouldn't necessarily have thought you would be end up doing and which opened new doors uh along the way there are other little pearls of wisdom that that you uh think when you think of your career that come up for you well yes I I think I think the most valuable skill that I've developed and I and again I attribute this to learning um foreign languages is the ability to hear and listen to what people say um and to be quiet enough to hear what people are trying to get across so um it in any kind of service industry those who succeed really pay attention to the details of what someone is telling them and then go go with that and ask follow-up questions and and and that um I I now that I'm older and on the senior level of um you know the the economic scale um I've taken great pride in mentoring young people for example um when um we have new associates that can't that come to the company um that are either working in my area or not necessarily for me but just in the same place in my business or in my office um I I hook on to them like white on rice and tell them you know you need to set up your 401k you need to have that money taken out before you get your first paycheck you've never seen it you won't miss it and um before long you will have a nice little nest egg I didn't start saving seriously for my retirement until I was in my mid 30s because no one explained it to me right my mother blessed her heart she did say you know just save five dollars every week and you know it is truly those little steps that you make economically I mean no one really teaches you how to manage money you know and many people um fault her because they've not known how to do that and that that and it has nothing to do with the amount of money you have as long as you have enough money to pay for your expensive expenses the money above that is something you can do with and so many people don't even have that so um you know not to change the subject but um Katie Portman who is a senator our congress representative from california she has so well interviewed people in congress and and explained to them that at CEOs at their company that um how expensive it is to be poor um and and you know when CEOs are are earning and I think the latest record is like two or three hundred times that of their lease lease earning um um um employees um they haven't they have they just they just can't imagine what it is like to try to survive on fifteen dollars an hour for 40 hours a week and and the cost that that it is so um so I mentor students about um you know saving money and and budgeting their money and setting up budgets I've run a budget um in excel for 25 years so I know how much money I have I have I know what how much money I have to expend whenever I make a major part purchase I look back at my spreadsheets and see what I what room I have to wiggle in and can make a purchase based on on how much money um I have to spend and not not just go out and buys you know a car or something like that right because I want it so that's important and I also mentor kids to kids young adults to honor their parents um to respect their elders because um even if I mean especially when your your parent has paid for your education someone needs to tell you that you need to give back and one of the things that I tell young employees um young associates is you know with your first or second paycheck take your parents out to dinner and clearly let them know you're paying for it because um if we don't learn these things yeah um we don't become human um we you know no one is an island um it truly takes a village and I've tried I've had my life expanded by all the villagers from different areas and including you um and um so I I I I believe in giving back that's beautiful those are those are pros of wisdom for sure thank you Peter so you're you still got some miles on that career truck of yours I do if you had a magic wand what would you like to see the next five to 10 years look like for you it's very interesting that you should mention that because I just um participated in a um training for a group that's called 40 plus here in Washington which helps people who are 40 plus transition into new positions and um one of the exercises that we did yesterday was to look at um what what you know without any barriers what do you want to accomplish in three years not five years but three years because that's something tangible and so I've been thinking about that um I I want to I don't like the way this sounds but I want to be a do-gooder um but I also want to be a do-gooder who earns a lot of money because I I have learned through my family my mother's side as opposed to my father's side with money you have options without money you are left um rudderless in in the water so I want to use my money and my education and my skill sets to do good environmentally or socially or something like that um you probably can't see but I have my I have some hats back there that indicate my um my um interest including like the Black Lives Matter movement which is which shouldn't be so divisive um but you know it it's one thing that I can say that will trip me up every time is when I think that my education my money my house my car will protect me from things and it just takes one police officer to shatter that illusion yeah really quick yeah so um I I believe in um and I'm at the age you know I'm I'm I'm over 50 I mean I'm actually 60 and I I know that you know we have to we have to have policy changes because um nothing has happened in the United States without a struggle nothing um and it's an illusion to think that things are just going to happen because people um feel good about it or something right exactly and there you know I've heard many times that the things in life that actually mean a lot are preceded by a struggle right because there there is that that whole you know you leave the port and and there's tough shaky waters that you're going to go through but if you get through them there's something new and better on the other side right yeah so maybe that's something in that area um nonprofit like Black Lives Matter to put some of your energy towards make a difference well I'm actually well I'm unemployed um and I am I I just applied for a a job that's a major do-gooder um so I'm hoping that that will work out um because they are they focus so it is a nonprofit um and they focus on um you know earth land water sea air food insecurities uh inequities medical inequities and stuff like that and I think certainly you know the pandemic um continues to show us on a daily basis what those inequities are and the overall costs and I think one of the things that that has certainly been in the news recently is you know why should we be concerned about what's happening in India because it's so far away but we are so interconnected that what happens in India or or Europe or Asia or or Africa does have an effect in the United States and if we don't pay attention things get out of hand absolutely I think pandemic certainly taught that lesson yet again nobody's there's no firewall between any country any continent so far wall and um people who think that they're protected are sadly living in an illusion right so um we're getting towards the end of our time together this has been wonderful and it's been fast um are there any any special quotes anything that um would help the audience help them understand you and that define you any experience that you had anything you wanted to say to wrap up this nice time together yes actually and I have some show and tell oh good this book is dindo washington um it's had a hand guide to guide me lessons that he has from other people and the reason I bought this is I heard him say oh I wish I could remember exactly um do what you have to do in order to do what you want to do so I think that's really really powerful wow um I also have this little book um as a gentleman let's see as a gentleman would say um it's actually a friend get um gave this to his nephew and it's all these you know quotes are for different situations and he said this is me and I start reading it and I thought oh my god it's just so true and some of it it's just so simple such as a gentleman never asks a woman if she's pregnant done that made that mistake won't do that again um a gentleman does not use his cell phone when he's at the table with others neither does he check his text messages or exchange text messages with others that's common sense um so um and I I think one of one one quote that I originally thought was from Oprah Winfrey because it was from her that I heard at first but I did some research and found out it was from Eleanor Roosevelt and the quote is and this is this is something that has truly guided me personally and professionally never take a no from someone who can't give you a yes wow so in any level of service business service the first line of defense defense for a company is to say no and if you just take that first no then then you won't get anywhere but um you know it comes into the point where you get to a certain point and you say excuse me may I speak to a supervisor and that first line of defense is always going to try to truncate that and keep you speaking to them and what I have done which I I know it's annoying but when people don't listen to me I just repeat the same question exactly verbatim um that's nice may I speak to a supervisor oh that's interesting may I speak to a supervisor so so I think that's my that's my favorite most useful quote that's wonderful because it's a mindset yeah yeah now I do see a plaque in the back there what's do you want to share what that might be um well um it is um an award I received I received from my religious organization that named me um 2019 president award wow it says in recognition of 13 years of commitment service as a member of the board of directors skills skillfully oversight of numerous community events and the effected the effected collaboration with our center administrator in addition peter's advocacy for social justice and his numerous acts of kindness offered to others in need are truly inspiring for all from james to um verse 17 faith without work is dead wow that's beautiful peter you got all that on that plaque wow thank you thank you and thank you for this time together you're you're welcome so um now what do we do I think we're gonna probably say goodbye for now okay and um I I'm sure the audience is just thrilled over this past time together and and thank you again peter you're a great friend and a wonderful man thank you I appreciate that very much see you soon um give my regards to Vermont all right I will bye bye