Patti Talks Too Much
Hi. I'm Patti and it's been said - many times - that I talk too much. I'm a teacher, author, nature lover and for ten years I owned a coffeehouse cafe where my faith in the goodness of humans was restored every day. This podcast highlights the awesomeness of humanity - er...outside the warmongers, globalists, tyrants and politicians in general. You know, the rest of us weird, quirky and sometimes hilarious humans.
We'll talk woo, probe mysteries and leave you thinking about something more interesting or entertaining or uplifting than your grocery list, or boss or that oil change your car needs.
I talk too much because I can't help my Gemini moon and Leo Rising nature. I do a podcast because it's cheaper, funnier and more productive than therapy.
Patti Talks Too Much
Navigating Tragedy, Nurturing Community, and Finding Safety
Have you ever lost something so dear to you that the pain felt unbearable? Taylor did, and in her heartfelt story, she shares the grief of losing her beloved cat, Shelly, and the touching ceremony she held in her memory. Alongside her, Anoki finds a new lease on life by joining a metal band, discovering camaraderie and creative joy and uncovers unexpected connections through the simple, yet profound act of singing, reminding us all of the power of music and community during life's changing tides.
From the heartbreak of loss to the joy of new adventures, our episode shifts its focus to the warmth of newfound friendships outside the workplace. Patti recounts a heartwarming visit to a goat farm in Dawsonville, where she discovered a fresh source for goat cheesemaking and possible lasting bonds. We also dive into the simple pleasures of attending local farmer's markets and baking sourdough bread with ancient einkorn wheat, capturing the spirit of community through shared passions and delightful homemade experiences.
Yet, amidst the joy, we discuss the harsh realities of today's world, particularly the harrowing experiences of school shootings and the alarming rise of violence in schools. Listen as we explore the impact on students, especially within marginalized communities, and the role of social media in perpetuating harmful behaviors. Through personal anecdotes and serious reflection, we delve into the troubling trends in school safety and the growing consideration of homeschooling as a safer alternative. Ending on a note of hope, we emphasize the importance of expressing love and support within our communities, offering heartfelt messages and personal stories that underscore the need for connection and understanding in these turbulent times.
Good morning. Good morning. This is Patty, with Patty Talks Too Much and we are live with my dear friends Anoki and Taylor. It's been yeah, it's been a couple of weeks, so it's amazing how much happens in our lives and in the world in just a couple of weeks, right.
Speaker 1:I lost my familiar.
Speaker 2:What do you mean?
Speaker 1:My cat.
Speaker 2:Oh no, no, you have. Didn't you have more than one cat? Didn't you have more than one cat Did? You have more than one cat, just one cat.
Speaker 1:One cat.
Speaker 2:What was her name? Shelly.
Speaker 1:What happened? It was about 10. But I don't really know. We went camping. We came back I couldn't find her. I thought, well, she'll come back.
Speaker 1:Days passed and then I began to pick up a scent in the neighborhood across the street. My sweet, sweet friend Michelle sat with me and held space. I got out divining rods and asked them. I asked spirit to just just steer me in the right direction. We asked the neighborhood cat to show us where she was. We ask our dog on a leash, after he smelled her blanket, to show us where she was. And they all went to the same place and it was house on the corner.
Speaker 1:So I had to knock on the door and say, hey, I know this is really crazy, but, um, I think that my cat might be in your basement or under your house, because I can, can smell it anyways. Um, michelle's boyfriend, john, and I suited up and we climbed 20 feet through the most traumatic crawl space I have ever encountered and we recovered my cat because it was her Um, and we were able to have a ceremony for her um with the boys, which is such a blessing, because with cats you don't always get to do that, you know. And now she's, she's always with us, she's in the yard, but I have to tell you that it's almost, it's this very sad feeling and I'm going to miss her terribly. I miss her. I've already, I've already seen her like sitting on the porch in a chair and like, oh my God, she's not there, but she was there.
Speaker 1:So I know she's still around me, but I feel like my guard is down spiritually. Or, like you know, cats do things for you that you don't realize they yeah, they're, they're protective. So protective, yeah, and so I feel like my words have been like taken down. I hate to say that well that'll. Yeah, I mean lots lots has happened um, in the last few weeks here. So enoki started a metal band. Yeah man, holy shit.
Speaker 3:Well, I didn't start it, I just joined yeah I'm just joining you, she joined the music at this point I I felt, I felt bad the other day. I was like at this point, like I will literally sing along to anything other than polka, just to play out yeah, just that's all genres of polka. I don't I don't work.
Speaker 1:Last night at work last night, uh, the guys in the kitchen were like taylor. Um, a thuggish, ruggish bone came on and they were like taylor hit the tasha part because now they all know that I can hit a note. So I'm like it's so funny. I mean like obviously I can't right now, but it was great. I love singing too. I miss it very much yeah.
Speaker 3:I felt like like I don't know, like just way more myself, you know, just being able to create stuff, you know unique avenue for you, because that's well you know it's really funny. I said, so, I have, I have, I. I have this like joke. You know, I've always had this joke that I was like the random skittle dropped in a box of dark goth chocolate you know, because, like literally, all my friends in high school were like all the all the goth kids, you know, and I'm wearing rainbow pants and tie-dye shirt and you know I literally was like the Skittle in the box of dark goth chocolate.
Speaker 3:But so I sent it to all my metalhead friends and stuff, all my metalhead friends and stuff, and they were like, wow, inoki, you know we couldn't put you to a genre ever, you know, but we kind of feel like maybe this might be your thing. You know, my friend Ash was like if you don't stick with this band.
Speaker 3:Your screams are so good to be wasted, you know like, like do something else with it because it was awesome but uh, but so it felt really good or whatever. I do have like a chest infection, not from screaming but from conquering the old house and stuff and doing some stuff there and pulling some things apart. So that was probably a poor decision to do the week that I joined the band, but but it needed to be done and I had to do it, so oh, that's awesome, I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:I went out with them on Friday night and I will tell you, it was like I don't know, like I know I connect with people, you know, but like I felt like I had known them for a decade. Those connections are happening right now a lot them, their partners, their kids.
Speaker 2:I just feel great and they want to keep the kids involved.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I've been so displaced up here Even if we're not playing, we got along so well that I would love to hang out with them all the time. Anyway, they're really cool. I went to this place called Blackstrap in Gainesville. And it was like a little rock bar, like cool little venue. Kind of reminded me of the Odd in Asheville, but less Odd, so it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that, I love that for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it was great because I was completely panicking about, like, a lot of things you know, which I'm sure we'll get into and I mean I'll let patty, drop that um, since, uh it's, it's up your alley more yeah, yeah, unfortunately, but you know before we get into some of the darker things that have happened recently.
Speaker 2:Um, speaking about connecting with community, because you know I've been kind of, you know, out out here like you know well yeah but like who am I going to connect with?
Speaker 2:you know, whatever. And what's interesting is at work. It's bizarre because, you know, I'll just say briefly we did this weird thing this week that I didn't want to do and I've never had to do at any other school, and that is that the head of the department decided that when we have a PLC meeting, like when we have a department-wide meeting, that one of the sections of the department decided that when we have a PLC meeting, like when we have a department wide meeting, that one of the sections of the department have to do presentations about what they're doing successfully in class and each one of us have to get up there and say I do this and this really works for me. And I was like fuck, a horse and pony show for real. And you know how.
Speaker 2:I feel about that it's like I don't, don't want, you know, I just do my thing in the classroom. I don't feel like putting together some whole presentation to get brownie points for other from other teachers and all this bullshit, because I don't even believe in all that shit. So my, when, the when the um english department, uh chair, well, the head of, uh, american lit, said, hey, so what do you want to do? I said said exit tickets. And she was like okay, and because I don't know if you know what exit tickets are, but they're like the little thing you do the last two minutes of class where the kids kind of write something or whatever. But I have this whole thing that I do with exit tickets.
Speaker 2:Anyway, she it wasn't like oh, I do this really great thing with group interaction, these groups, and we get all this stuff, you know, and all this like educational lingo that I hate, you know. So I didn't, I wasn't going to do that. So I got up and said well, I'm going to make a case for exit tickets, you know, like the two minutes of the last part of the day.
Speaker 2:Here are my little exit tickets. They're all in color. This, here's the board, here's a picture, and blah, blah, blah and whatever. And I just feel like and I even said this is the low tech, like you can count on me for the low tech stuff, because I'm not going to get up there and say, oh, this is how I use this app, or this is how I use AI, or this is how I do it. You know, I'm like no, just you know, I just I'm not, I'm not into it and I'm not into the horse and pony show.
Speaker 2:So, at any rate, I just got up there and did my thing. But what's interesting is I had to really deal with my own ego, because I knew that people were looking at me like she's probably too old to be in a classroom right now she's doing exit tickets. Like they were looking at me like what, like there was nothing technical about what I was doing. It was all just old fashioned practicing sentence writing on exit tickets about the topic of the day and whatever you have a lot of things that you could have done.
Speaker 2:You know the whole horse and pony show I could have, but I didn't. I don't want to do that shit.
Speaker 3:I don't want to because you're not a low-tech teacher, and you're not too old to be in a classroom and you have incorporated common colors and all kinds of things into your classroom. Yeah, and you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:But at this point it's kind of like my whole teaching career. I feel like, yeah, my whole teaching career I haven't really bought into the educational system. And so now, at the very tail end of my teaching career, it's like, yeah, this, the educational system is fucked and I'm just here making connection with students and I don't really give a shit about any you know, I mean like there's, just like we know how I feel about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly so just make your beautiful cheeses and breads Right, and so speaking right, Speaking of which.
Speaker 2:So anyway, it's kind of like I know I'm I'm making some connections at work, but I am the oldest one in the department and I do think that there's an ageist thing that goes on and I do think that, um, you know, I don't, I, you know, it's not like I'm not going to be making friends at Gainesville. Let's just put it that way. I'm not going to be making these friends that I hang out with at Gainesville, because they're all teachers who are totally invested in the system. They speak a particular lingo and I don't speak that language.
Speaker 3:I don't want to, except for the one that you went out to the thing. So we have a box instead.
Speaker 1:The community is one person, you know what I mean, but we'll see.
Speaker 2:We'll see, because she's really invested in, like how yeah, she's really invested in you know the kind of like being part of that. She's going to be around, like she wants to be in the system for another 10 years and I'm taking it one year at a time. It's like I don't know if I'm going to be here next year Probably not. But at any rate, on the topic though, I mean I went all the way around that to mention something about community connection, and so I had this really awesome connection yesterday, because I went out to a goat farm in Dawsonville and I got my first gallon of raw milk and I made my first thing of goat cheese milk. That was that like literally was harvested like that day. So yesterday morning he milked her goat and yesterday afternoon I made goat cheese with it. So I'm really thrilled about that.
Speaker 1:And that connection.
Speaker 2:we were like, you know, we, we were really on the same page. So she's a woman who she's she's making goat cheese. She goes to the local farmer's market. She said, listen, there are folks at the local, local farmer's market who do this and that you would really like them. It's really a great community of people and so why don't you come out next Saturday and meet some of the people at the farmer's market out here? And I was like I'm there, I'm totally, I'm totally there, so I'm going to go out out. Uh, you know, it's not a huge farmer's market. I'm used to like Delray farmer's market down in Florida, which is huge but yeah.
Speaker 2:No, it's awesome though, yeah, so I mean, our space is nicer yeah, no, I agree, so it's just the way that it's when I go pet the goat and I oh yeah, no, that's what I was doing yesterday. I was petting the goats. I met the goats, I know their names and it's really it was. It was awesome. So I met the goats.
Speaker 3:You get to connect with them too. Yeah, yeah it was awesome and thank them for their cheese.
Speaker 2:And I also wanted to show you guys one other thing. So you know how I been making sourdough bread, or like starting to make sourdough bread. Um, I have wanted to work with a um, with a flour that's called ancorn and it's wheat, that's the original wheat. This is like. This is these wheat berries are like the same as they were like thousands of years ago. So most of the wheat we get has been kind of changed over the years. But, and corn, that's e I n k? O? R? N.
Speaker 1:I've had this bread, yeah, bread, hand ground by a neighbor, yeah, order. He delivered a loaf that his children knew that he loved to partake in bread making, yeah, flowers. And so they saw out this particular wheat berry and bought him like a you know five gallon bucket, and so, yeah, no idea what with it all, and he actually had pj and payton help him him come over and grind some down. It was the most delicious bread I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm really glad you said that, because I got 25 pounds of this berry.
Speaker 3:It's very hardy.
Speaker 2:I milled it myself. I've made my first loaf of sourdough and corn. It's actually still warm.
Speaker 1:Why does she kiss to us, enoki, like? Why does she do like you're closer, I would be in my car and like on the way, I know, isn't that beautiful? And there's bread. I'm done yeah.
Speaker 3:So you know.
Speaker 2:so anyway, the day of the game. That game was five minutes from her house. I'm done, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I, you know, so anyway, that game was was five minutes from her house, but I knew that she was on her farm adventure. I was, I was, I was on my farm adventure, so so we didn't stop that day, but but then I only went back to Gainesville and go to the blackstrap show, and that was it. No, but we will, we'll get together and that was it.
Speaker 2:You know, no, but we will. We'll get together and I and you know this is a whole process. So I, you know, I like the way my goat cheese tastes, but I want to work on the texture. So I'm going to be experimenting with that, um, I like the way the ankhorn bread came out, um, but I'm going to continue to work on that because you know, the whole sourdough bread making thing is a whole process and you, really it takes a while to kind of get it just right. But the the idea that I have, honestly, is to make little, little sourdough bread rolls and soup and sell bread and soup. Like I forget to eat my sourdough bread rolls and soup and sell bread and soup.
Speaker 1:Like I forget to eat my sourdough oh my god I can't wait
Speaker 3:to have. I can't wait to have potato peel soup with your ancient spicy cheeses next to potato peel soup yeah, I have to make that, because it's actually like kind of see, I, I did go to Patti's house and Patti did make the potato stew. I did.
Speaker 1:I love that you're like admitting this to me.
Speaker 3:I have to tell her I can't even hold it in. I try not to you know, I don't know. Like, yeah, I don't want to rub it in, but I did, she did, yeah, and it was amazing and nostalgic and it made my heart happy. I can still taste it right now.
Speaker 1:The boys the other day were like we want turkey burgers, patty's turkey burgers. And they were like, yeah, everything that Patty would get, why?
Speaker 3:don't you come down? You guys stay with me, and then we all go to patty's and hang out with patty for the day and run around in her woods there oh yeah, I think that's an awesome idea.
Speaker 2:I have air mattresses I got a couch I've got space we'll plan it for a weekend.
Speaker 1:Things to hang from your trees for the deer.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yes, indeed, Absolutely. So we'll plan that for a weekend because the cheddar is really close to being ready. My goat cheese, I think, will be, you know.
Speaker 3:I'll perfect.
Speaker 2:October, october for the cheddar, and by then I'll have, you know, I'll have, even, I'll develop, I'll have developed my sourdough um techniques with, uh, the bread making and with the soups that I'd like to offer, and I think I might want to do that in farmers markets, offer, offer soup and bread.
Speaker 1:You know, I just just to you know, yeah, that's gonna be like such great money maybe, maybe it's um, it's not cheap um and you'll be feeding souls again too, I'll be feeding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole point is feeding souls, but you know, I definitely want to make sure I'm not I don't lose money on it, because I by then I might need it as um a source of you know given given how things are going, which brings us which brings us to the the events of the week and the phone call that enoki and I had friday.
Speaker 3:So what have you heard about what happened here in georgia yeah, let's, let's start there read the text messages.
Speaker 1:You guys know how I feel about school shootings. I was in one. I walked home with him. They're very, very sensitive subjects to me.
Speaker 3:When was the last time you heard about two people being involved in something like that Sandy Hook and Columbine being involved in in something like that?
Speaker 2:sandy hook, columbine no they said yeah, they said just one in sandy hook, supposedly yeah, allegedly one in a sandy hook, columbine.
Speaker 3:I was in school for I remember all my friends were in the goth community so, like everybody that I knew was like getting persecuted and extra pull out of class and all kinds of stuff you know, and they were, all you know, good kids. But because of the two of them, but I had this like feeling like the second because, okay, they announced it.
Speaker 3:When they announced it they said there was two shooters, right and and all I could think is like oh my god, you know, that hasn't happened since since then. You know, it's more than 20 years ago, you know yeah and uh, and I'm gonna get all shaky.
Speaker 3:I hate that, um, anyway. So so I, uh, I, I immediately had like all these terrible feelings, but sometimes I can, like you know, go a little over the top with you know, breathe through it, preparing myself for you know something that might happen or might not, you know. But all I kept thinking is you know God, if there's more than one, you know cause? Then later on in the day, they announced oh no, it was one, it was just one guy, you know. But I felt really weird about it, you know, like why would they say that you?
Speaker 3:know kids were hearing things on both sides of the building. You know we were hearing that from from the kids.
Speaker 3:You know themselves in the, in the live interviews right there on the scene, that they all walked past the child that had a firearm less than 10 inches from their body, you know, and that one of the shooters was was dead, you know, um, but uh, but then at the end of the day they were like no, it was just the one guy and I felt like it was like, you know, the male ego, inability to admit a wrong or admit whatever, you know and I just can't you know the commitment that they had for combine, you know.
Speaker 3:You know commitment with kids is is way beyond what it is for adults, because adults have faced consequence and loss and all kinds of things. You know, but kids don't. So for them, you know, some do, but for the most part for them their commitments are fairytale. You know, they're like the level of you know book, like something you'd read in a book you know, you know book, like something you'd read in a book, you know.
Speaker 3:So all I kept thinking was like god help with what is going to happen, you know when, when the other part, takes action again.
Speaker 3:You know, learning from whatever mistakes, you know. And so I was like totally tripping out, you know, the whole day, on, on, and then the next day I was calming down a little bit. I'm like, all right, maybe you know, maybe I just picked up like the just the wrong grid. You know the wrong energy line here. You know, maybe I was wrong, you know. Well then I'm not going to say who and how and what because I don't want to jeopardize any familial situations or job. You know things, or job confidentialities. But somebody that I know had two people personally call out to work, two separate individuals not related to each other, not related to each other. Both of their children had been arrested and they were both being detained and the FBI was raiding their home. They said 13 other kids were involved and that was what they could confirm already but that it was probably more like 25 and that it was online, online.
Speaker 3:They were connecting and planning A couple of children connecting and planning and plotting against multiple systems across multiple areas. They shut down three whole districts, all right, and then, after they shut down those three, more were there to follow.
Speaker 3:I don't know how it's going to play out over the weekend, or you know, if it feels like they have it under control or what, but they stopped this kid a year ago, interviewed him yeah you know, detained him, had all everything, let him go, and then his dad bought him the ak-47 or whatever it was, the assault rifle you know, which he brought to the school and then acted on a year later, at a school that he had only been at for one full day he was only at that school, enrolled at that school for one full day.
Speaker 3:So none of these kids that he actually killed or or shot at or any of that, yeah, anything to him. They didn't have the opportunity to even really know his name at that point, you know. So the news and the media is like oh, you know he was bullied and called gay, and all this but not by one single individual there at that school.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So you know I'm a little insulted by the media reporting.
Speaker 2:Oh, he was bullied there.
Speaker 3:He couldn't have been. That was his first full date and he only made it until 10 o'clock. Yep, you know, this had nothing to do with the people at the school, the teachers, any of the individuals.
Speaker 2:This was something he had plotted with other people to do Other young people, yep.
Speaker 3:All of the posts, you know young people, yeah, all of the posts, you know, at banks everywhere here in georgia, like I follow like six different counties because you can't really live in one place here. Yeah, you know, and that's and that's the problem. You know, and that's really scary that they've got 13 people in banks county alone, because that's 13 people that have to go to eight different counties, all close by, for a different thing every week. You know, some are going to church for this county, you know, but they go to school in this county but if you want to go swimming you gotta go to that county and if you want to go to something recreational you got to release county, you know. So there's no way to really live in one place here. You know, and and they did act on it, you know, they acted on it. And if it's on the internet we all know how fast anything grows on the internet you know for it to grow far enough for one of their plans to come into fruition how deep did that go?
Speaker 3:So the other problem that we have here is the bus system. The bus system stops at the primary school, the elementary school, the middle school and then the high school. We have severe bullying issues in the area, bullying issues in the area. So all of these kids are clinging to an older kid or clinging to somebody else whenever something's happening to them, you know, looking for safety, you know, and are they finding the good kids or are they finding the bad kids?
Speaker 3:So one week after I pulled my son out of public school here, the bus that he would have rode had I ever put him on a bus which I drove him to school every day, but had I put him on a bus it would have been his bus had a gun pulled off of the bus. They pulled the bus over, detained the bus and pulled a child with a gun off of the bus. All right, now, that was primary, elementary, middle and high school, all exposed to this gun and this person that they all knew. You know that that not all of them had to hate. You know, not all of them probably didn't get along with. Who was he connected with? Who was he parts of? You know? So you have that problem where it's not just one kid, one school one, whatever it's that kid and any kid that that kid touched.
Speaker 3:You know this is like coronavirus, you, you know, or what they wanted worse you know, but worse with a higher death rate with, with people with a, with less of an understanding about you know about life. You know people, who, who. All they have so far, this far in life, are the stories they're hearing or what they're reading, or the people that they've connected with. You know, like so it's terrifying. So I called Patty the other day when I found out about that, because I was following all six counties' forums you know where everybody the community forums, anybody that's posting anything about. Oh, my daughter just texted me and it's a screenshot of her daughter texting saying they're walking down our school.
Speaker 3:They were pulling it. They were pulling it as fast as it was going up, as I was weeding it, it was coming down, you know. And then you had all these people popping on there saying, oh, banks County's school system is so great and this, and that they had huge police presence, like the entire police force, like the middle school, the primary school or the high school and the middle school are close to each other. The elementary and the primary are almost on top of each other, each other, the elementary and the primary are almost on top of each other. The the whole parking lot was full of police at both, both, both sites, you know, and at the high school too, you know.
Speaker 3:And all these parents, you know, are shooting, you know, screenshots of what their kids are sending them. And banks county posts up, oh, you know, no, we're just upping the police presence. There's no threat, there's no anything. Meanwhile, I know, because employees had to call out from this place, that there were 13 children arrested in banks county or detained in banks county. You know, on on terroristic threats.
Speaker 1:You know connected and the telegram from their parents mouth, straight from their parents mouth.
Speaker 3:There's at least 13 of them and they think there's more. It was online there's more, because there was, there were the other arrests too as the day progressed or whatever, they arrest 8 kids in Atlanta, metro Atlanta area. Then they arrested someone in Hall.
Speaker 1:Then they arrested um someone in hall.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they arrested, I think it was two individuals in hall County, two in Gainesville and then and then they arrested a kid in Rabin. Rabin was soon to follow. After I hung up the phone with you when I went to the show, Rabin had announced that they had arrested somebody for a terroristic threat. This is pretty much like every county we could drive to, Every county we could drive to with a light Meanwhile.
Speaker 1:we've got teachers like Patty.
Speaker 3:And then we have teachers like Patty, and we already know that violence in school between students and students and students and teachers is escalating, you know, and it's escalating without reason. And the other thing about this is these were blue-collar camoed-out kids. Blue-collar camoed-out kids, these were not punky kids, these were not gothy kids, these were not kids that had social groups or you know, this was your average child, your average child acting out and carrying out these things because of what? The internet so it was discord. I found out later on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, discord yeah yeah, discord was was where the forum was like I.
Speaker 1:I joined discord for pokemon I haven't ever been on discord since I was the other day that even like, so you guys remember when I was doing nike for a job, doing the supervisor job for nike um the application that they use like. We spoke through discord privately like us, us employees, but the what we used through nike was um, an app called slack. Now they're also kids are on there using that to create these types of meeting places too. It's terrifying.
Speaker 3:People are like oh, tiktok is so bad, you know. I don't see anything other than information or opinions on TikTok you know Shit like that is scary.
Speaker 3:You know whatsapp, you know things like that. I had a friend like like I, I quit, um, we'll get there. Um. I had a friend or whatever like, and I was like um, looking to get some green from him. You know, this is because I I quit smoking, um, but I was looking to get some green drum and he's like oh, um, message me on this app. He's like. He's like this app doesn't have any tracers or anything. You know they advertise. You know that it's not tappable by government and this and that and I was like okay they advertise that they're not tappable by government.
Speaker 3:I'm like, okay, you tell me what you want me to tell the government and I'll message you there. You know like. But what's it called? You know like. He was convinced that that was like some kind of secret thing, I don't remember telegram signal. It was signal so it's infinite. There are, there's so many of these yeah, there's so many of these that the yeah. How do you monitor?
Speaker 2:how do you?
Speaker 3:monitor them. You know, you, you, you don't really you know, but I was telling patty the other day, you know. I think that it's all based around the fact. You know that the thing that I don't all the time. You know, empathy is the wordless language we're all taught to ignore. But at the end of the day, nothing could be more important to the human race. You know nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the one of the things that, just just to jump in here, I think she had to attend to, the little one um, there apparently was. The original threat was to five different high schools and the statement was, um, apalachee is first, um, and so you have, and I know Gainesville was, uh, one of them. I'm pretty sure Gainesville was one of them. So you, you know, and I, I know teachers who work at Johnson. You know, because I, I was there last year and every, you know, like all the teachers are, um, completely on edge. You know, like, what do we, what do we do and how do we secure ourselves? And I will say this when I was in South Florida, because you know, my, the school that I taught at was not far from Parkland, right, and so we did active shooter drills. That was really, really serious. What we have in Georgia is nothing compared to the kind of what, what we would do in Florida.
Speaker 3:And a terrifying point to that was was in in the interviews All right, so I'm also. Same person had another co worker whose child attended that school or whatever. They brought them to work that day and and were able to actually ask this child. That was there, all these questions, you know, and they had a lot of questions and they asked good questions and had them answered. But the girl said when they first heard the sirens on the intercom system, all right, when they first heard the sirens on the intercom system, somebody came over the PA and told all students, return to your classrooms. All students return to your classrooms. All students return to your classrooms immediately. What happens in a lockdown? How do lockdowns work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't.
Speaker 3:I was pretty sure that you lock down, wherever you are, whether it's the bathroom, whether it's the library, whether it's the cafeteria, you lock the doors you hide.
Speaker 1:So if you're in the fucking bathroom, your classroom is locked. You will be in the hallway, stuck there as a fucking Right in the open for everything, exactly, exactly, and that was what happened.
Speaker 3:And the teacher the first teacher that was shot, her banging on the lockers had not been alerted to what was going on Other than hearing all students return to your classrooms, all right, hadn't heard the siren or anything. And heard the banging on the lockers in the hallway and went out to see what happened the moment she opened the door, the moment they opened the door. I don't know if it was the him or her, but the moment they opened the door, they were shot immediately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as soon as they stepped out into the hallway.
Speaker 3:And Patty asked me why would they do something like that? That into the hallway, and patty asked me, why would they do something like that? You know well, you know I've seen a lot of military movies and stuff and and when standing rock happened, the girl got her arm blown off with the sound grenade. You know I was like why do they even have sound grenades? You know things like that. So I looked into you know why they would even have them. You know, but it's distractive tactic, you know, make a commotion so that people come out to see. Then they're open, they're exposed, unlocked and you have the ability to move on. Like when, when, when, you know, like when you're playing basketball and you go to do a fake pass and then you run the other way. You know it's a distractive tactic to get people, you see, to get attention. But get attention where you want it, not on yourself, so that you could move forward with what and what you're acting out.
Speaker 2:and this is the thing, this is the thing that really struck me, because I think that the whole that, that the whole way that these shootings, these shootings have evolved, because it used to be that some supposed crazy kid who, who had all you know was just kind of whatever whacked out, would go into a school and just start randomly shooting, just start randomly shooting as soon as they got in there. There was no strategy, there's no strategy, there's no, there's no strategy.
Speaker 2:It was reactive it was reactive but this is strategic. This is there. They're actually using plans. This is strategic. This is a network of kids.
Speaker 3:This is a whole thing, it's a whole other thing thatty's like, how would kids have even learned something like that? And I was like, have you ever seen the game call of duty? No, have you ever seen a child play call of duty? Or a grown man? Grown men play it more than kids do you know. But but you know they're, they're getting military training in this game and it's communicative. It's communicative, they are communicating and they can help each other to get better at it.
Speaker 3:You know too, as they're playing it you know, like, and then they're desensitized because the graphics in it are just as real as real life. You know you can hardly tell the difference between the game and a video. If you were watching a video you know they're. They're so intense, so it's not like. They're not like seeing somebody's face explode, you know, like that's in the game, that's like real life. They're just sensitized to it. They're they trained, they're tactical and it's terrifying, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that's so. These school shootings have evolved. So you have the mental illness still there, but now you have these school shootings evolving into something that's strategic, and that's the thing that is people are really disturbed about, because it's a network and that's why there have been so many arrests. So there is a whole network of young people who are involved in these threats and perhaps these strategies about going into what you know. So who's what school is next, and I think that's why so many people are on edge. So the three letter agencies would like us to believe that it was just one crazy kid, as always, but this has. Everybody has a sense and I think this is part of the dread that you're feeling in Ogie is that everyone has a sense that this is a whole other level, a whole level to schools level, a whole different level to schools.
Speaker 3:On on, on wednesday or, or, uh, tuesday, one of the two days, no, wednesday or thursday somebody that I had known had posted up um georgia fam. Do we know or have anyone attending or working at appalachia High School? Please call or text. And I was. I was really upset, you know and and and, but still trying to talk myself out of how upset I was, you know. So I didn't go as far into everything and I didn't know the things that I was gonna find out, and I hadn't seen yet that Patty, that same day, somebody from Patty's school was detained. But I did find that out later on in the day before I wrote this.
Speaker 3:But I wrote to her I said sending prayers. I didn't know the victims. My next door neighbor worked with one of the teachers last year at a different school and is heartbroken at the loss of his friend.
Speaker 3:He is currently teaching in a district close by and he is traumatized too. I also have a friend teaching at a different high school, also neighboring this school. Violence in schools is escalating across the board, with student teacher acts of violence and student student acts of violence. It's a scary environment, so terrible. I only had my kid in public school for less than a month and I could tell that that was how Georgia school operates Lots of bullying from students and from staff. My son was in kindergarten and got choked out, kicked into a urinal by an older kid, pushed on the playground and was bleeding from his face one day when I picked him up and not one staff or student asked if he was okay.
Speaker 3:We homeschool here now and that will never change. Most schools are the only option for the whole district. Compared to Florida, they're not understaffed, most have classes of 23 with a teacher and an aide in elementary school and they're 30 to 1 in the upper grades. But they completely overlook the essentials and importance of safety and empathy and what they're there to do, and I believe that that causes larger problems down the line. My heart aches for the families that have lost a loved one.
Speaker 3:Georgia does not put their education system as a priority unless it has to do with the county's football programs, and that's true. You know they'll invest what $300,000 in AstroTurf for the football field. But you know we're just going to go with buttons on our ID badge for security and and get rid of the, the security, because this was not a school that they had removed the security from, but I believe, um two counties over, they fired all of the school resource officers. There are no school resource officers there. So so I mean, you know they they don't just devalue safety, they're literally working towards taking safety away.
Speaker 3:Now in lawrenceville they, they are firearm training the teachers. All right, and if you've ever seen a video of one of their training sessions, I have to say that that is probably the most terrifying thing I will ever ever witness in my life. Okay, because it's little men running around with a gun like this, yeah, okay, holding this blue gun with a big rubber ribbon hanging off of it like this, pointing it at every children that every child that runs by, trying to determine whether or not they're the bad guy or not?
Speaker 1:Racist teachers who are shooting any POC kid like absolutely fucking not, If you watch the video of them firearm training these teachers?
Speaker 3:it is terrifying.
Speaker 1:There's one teacher at my kid's high school that's like so He'll get in the kids' faces and scream hoorah at them. I'm like somebody give him a gun.
Speaker 3:There was a woman who was like we'll protect your kids here in Lawrenceville, makes this whole video and then puts the training video in her video.
Speaker 2:All right, and she's in the video I actually, you know, I think, like the, the, the um, the ones who stopped the this, this particular shooter was taken alive.
Speaker 2:I mean, usually they're they're shot, but this which is really strange, well, but I think, I think that it was because it was the school. It was the school. So they have designated school officers who are armed I mean, they have that at my school too and sometimes you don't even know who they are. But there's, like you know, three or four on on campus who are you know, who are there and armed and just doing security. Um, and I think, like if it's a school-based person who's doing it, they are less likely to shoot first at ask questions later. It's a student, it's somebody young.
Speaker 3:They want to take them, they want to take them alive, and so yeah, even though he didn't have any relationship with them because it was his first full day, he only made it to 10 o'clock exactly, but he was still a kid.
Speaker 2:Obviously he was a young kid.
Speaker 3:If it was a SWAT team, that wouldn't have it makes me so ill, it makes me so sick to my stomach the mental preparedness that this kid went through to do this, though, because if you look at any of his interviews, he is just just his dad losing his shit. The kid stone faced. Yes, sir, respectful, you know, and like not disrespectful, not anything. There was a video that showed somebody kicking and screaming as they were putting them into a car, and it was like this is god's decision and you should know, but I don't think that that was the same situation or place.
Speaker 1:I think that that was one of the kids arrested from a different school, that's even scarier.
Speaker 3:You know, is, is, is, is it? Is it religious? You know? Is it like what? What are these kids motives here? And and what is it that you know? Is it like? What are these kids motives here? And what is it that brought them together? Because they're all really normal kids like parents, wise family wise.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's religious.
Speaker 3:I don't know what it was. Did you see that video with the kid getting loaded into the car, screaming all that? I'll have to find that, because that was what made me. Did you see that video with the kid getting loaded into the car, screaming all that?
Speaker 2:I'll have to find that, because that was what made me wonder you know, what is it that's tying all these really normal kids together? Right, and the thing is, it's like how much of the news do we trust?
Speaker 3:None of it. You know how much of the news like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like, really, how much of the news um do we trust? Because you know there's always, you know, an agenda ready to jump in whenever um, these kinds of um things happen. And uh, enoki, you're right, like we don't the, you know, you can say, take everyone's guns, but the thing is it's like we still we have a, we have a mental illness issue, particularly with our young people, and we have no idea how to and it's?
Speaker 3:it's caused by a complete and total lack of empathy in the united states. It's caused by, you know, people. You know judging people and and pushing people off to the side. It's caused by our economy. You know situations and stuff you know, but really, at the end of the day, it's the fact that if you go through something, you're going to be segregated instead of brought in, you know, and back. You know, back before you know when things would happen. You know somebody lost their husband or if somebody you know the community would come together. You know, and they would. They would involve people you know in things you know and still try to make them feel human together. You know, and they would. They would involve people you know in things you know and still try to make them feel human. You know, like there have been plenty of times where that hasn't happened. There's been plenty of times where you're persecuted or murdered. You know if you have a situation or something you know. But if we had that empathy, if we thought about how we were making people feel when we were doing things, it would be like really hard for anybody to carry out things like that. You know, if you cared about the people around you.
Speaker 3:This kid didn't even know any of these people you know and he was willing to murder them all. You know he didn't know any of them and he was willing to murder them all you know, like, like, where you know, there's two types of people in the world. I was telling patty the other day you know, you have the people that are like something happened to me and because that's something happened to me, I'm gonna turn around, I'm gonna do it to everybody because fuck that and fuck them, and I, I, I I'm so against them and and it hurt me and I'm going to hurt everybody. And then there's the people that have something happen to them and and they're like, oh my God, that hurt me so bad.
Speaker 3:I could never do that to another human being. I could never feel that way or make somebody feel that way or or do that same thing, because it was the most painful thing I'd ever felt. And those are the two types of people that are in the world and it's scary, but it's a 50-50 like that. It really just depends on are they going to be like well, fuck that, fuck them and fuck everyone. Or are they going to be like man, you know, that was horrible, like how do we not do that ever again?
Speaker 1:How do?
Speaker 3:we change that. You know, like you know, I feel like, if you know who was talking to this person, you know who was sharing their opinions with them, and you know, whatnot? You watch this kid's video, or whatever. He goes hunting with his dad and his dad his dad at first is pressuring him about killing a deer. Is he going to do it, or whatever? Then he does. He makes him go over to it and he smears the blood on his face from this deer. Wait a minute.
Speaker 2:Is this the?
Speaker 3:same kid, the same kid. No, this is the same kid that just shot all these other kids at Appalachian high school because you know that that's from a movie yeah, yeah, I saw that.
Speaker 2:I saw that in a movie but here's the interesting thing, see it's it's really all about perspective, because when I, when I saw that scene in this particular movie, it's really all about perspective, because when I, when I saw that scene in this particular movie, it was really about honoring the life of of that, of that deer, and being grateful for it was a whole other scene that was about the way that they did the life and all of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the way that they did this in the video, the father and the kid, it was, like you know, smear the blood of your enemy across your face. You know? No, no sorrow, no honor, no, none of that you know, they're like oh look, I see white, uh-huh, you know, laughing, joking, laughing joking, and the kid's face is covered in blood.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that my sense is that we have another incident like this and our high schools will probably go remote, like I honestly do think, like we are on the edge of making high schools go remote because young, because you know, we can't guarantee the safety of our young people. And I think there are a lot of parents who are saying, yeah, it's going to be hard, but I'm going to homeschool because I can't guarantee that the school cannot guarantee the safety of my, of my child or children, so I'm going to pull them out. And I honestly think that we're kind of on the edge of seeing kind of the collapse of our educational system, Because, yeah, I mean, and I think it is, I think it's because we pay, we pray, we vote, we're proactive, we get involved, we volunteer at the schools you know still falling, give our input and there's nothing that we can do to change it.
Speaker 3:And so, like my situation, you know, I pulled my son out. I said no, no, we're not going to participate if you can't guarantee his safety here at school, right in kindergarten, in his first less than a month, you know. Then then then you can't be responsible for my kids, right? I'm going to be responsible for my kid I'm going to make sure that he's at home safe. I'm going to do whatever I have to do to do that. You know and I have a really affordable homeschool program.
Speaker 1:It's only like 39 a month and they give discounts for multiple kids right, it's hard here, which is cheaper, there's only one school, one umbrella school that I can pull the boys out of, it's where I put them and when we were at um st jude's, um, there's only one school that is a not religious based homeschool.
Speaker 3:So, and you know, curriculum included and it's mine has a bible class, but you don't have to. You know it's not. It's not a required thing. So you build the curriculum, pick which of the classes you want to do, or whatever um, but, but. But it's accredited and it's a nationwide um school too.
Speaker 1:It's called me academy you always have k through 12. You know they send boxes to your house. It has like science, experiments and books, like patty was saying to me the other day.
Speaker 3:That that's still, you know, still kind of public school and that's still, you know, virtual web based. You know that they're in your home just as much as you're in in their videos, you know like you're yeah, you're still. You know all of that and that's why I went when I put him in school, it was.
Speaker 3:It was like 150 dollars for that one month worth of lunch, because the first lunch isn't really enough. You know that they give free lunches here in Georgia, but it's not enough sustenance for your kid really, you know. So between the lunch, the snacks, the extracurricular things, the recreational things and the gas to drive him back and forth, it was like 150 a month, like you know.
Speaker 3:You take all that away it's 39 a month and they go up through high school and they're accredited and you pick what classes you're teaching them. It does have a bible class, but you don't have to. It's an elective it's not a required class they have their core curriculum.
Speaker 3:They organize it all for you. You're not really having to go through and and organize each subject you know in in a way that that is hard. They wreck, they record it all for you. You don't have to keep record because it's all there. You just have to make sure that he's doing it. That's it. Yeah, you know, and it's a really, instead of being like work on trails and an app, like most of the homeschools were or whatever, this is a really nice, clean, good, functioning, easy to work with platform you know I mean so.
Speaker 3:So it saved me money, it saved me time, it put the responsibility of my kid in my own hands, you know, and it was cheaper than putting them in in public school the other reason I went with, the choice I went with, was it was the only way that I didn't have to have them do standardized testing. There's no standardized testing. With this one, you can opt to do that with your state, but it's not required.
Speaker 1:Unless it's these homeschools here, it is absolutely required.
Speaker 3:And their high school platforms they come into the school twice a year to do standardized testing absolutely not yeah and their, their high school platform, I believe, provides you with a high school diploma at the end of completion.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was like the coolest thing ever yeah, no, I, I like that, and so one of the like 200 people join the thechool forums and so.
Speaker 3:I've been doing talking about it. Yeah all week long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, because I think you're going to see that you're going to see kind of an exodus out of the, out of the schools, and and I think, like just what you were talking about, like in terms of like, where has this sense of, you know, empathy or community going?
Speaker 2:I think about, like the woman, the woman I met over over the weekend who's like, if I need eggs, I know somebody who has eggs. We are like we have become this little community that looks after each other, so we don't have to worry about any of us going hungry or if there's a problem or if there's an issue on anybody, any of us going hungry or if there's a problem or if there's an issue on anybody, there's always somebody who can help. And so I I hear that and I think that's that is also happening parallel to all of this. You know, disintegration is that you've got these little self contained, you know sustainable little communities of people coming together who care about each other and take care of each other. Um, and I think that that's going to happen more and more on local, on local levels, and it's just kind of finding, uh, those, you know those places where, um, where people are coming together and creating their own local community.
Speaker 3:I honestly Home school groups, have a co-op groups or whatever, which are, like you know, 10 kids, you know that are all homeschooled at home and come together for you know two or three days in the week or whatever, for an extracurricular activity or whatever Field trips or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we go up to the your kid is still getting some sort of of you know immunocom.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying isolate from the world. I'm saying remove yourself from the system that is killing our children. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at this point it's, it's you know, and, and what's going to be left at the school system is going to be terrifying after these exodus, I'm scared.
Speaker 1:Now that they're in high school. It's not easy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it's going to be the only you know, the only kids that are really going to be left there are going to be the kids that people didn't want to try, you know.
Speaker 2:Or they just don't have any other option.
Speaker 1:You know they don't, yeah, they don't, they don't have that are available because our parents, yeah, aren't around, or you know they.
Speaker 3:You know they get it in their head. You know that there's nothing that they could do, you know. But it is what it is, but it'll be what you make it. You know you can always do something about something, you know and and for high school kids. It is hard, you know, but at the same time, you know, so was covid. Yeah, and we all made it through that you know, so was covid, and we all survived.
Speaker 2:That you know mostly and mostly yeah, you know, mostly, mostly, I don't know. We people didn't exactly um mostly survive the vaccine, but that's a whole issue um well, I lost my grandpa yeah, exactly, um, but uh, what was I gonna say?
Speaker 2:I forgot? Oh, my goodness, we're about at the hour mark and do you guys want to pull a card real quick before we end? Sure, yep, so we're going to pull a card, you know, like we've done in the past, and I think, like this is really. These are things that I think a whole lot of people are thinking about and talking about and trying to figure out. I think that the running theme across so many areas is how do we protect our children? Because, you know, our children are kind of you know, kind of no pun intended, but like under the gun in a lot of ways, extremely vulnerable, yes, extremely vulnerable, extremely vulnerable in terms of their health, you know, in terms of like the oh. So we have the temple. All right, bring it in, bring it in, bring it in. So we've got the temple for inspiration for the coming weeks. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:So the temple, the sanctuary, the shrine, the altar.
Speaker 1:When we think of the temple, we often envision an architectural structure and a far-off land. We're quick to distance ourselves from the sacred, assuming we must have spent much effort in order to arrive there. Yet the temple is a universal and omnipresent energy, accessible in the highest and lowest riches and forest places. Visiting the temple might be as simple as stepping into the dappled light of the forest slowly and sinuously, kissing a lover, or closing your eyes to travel inward. This part is a call to reexamine what we pay homage to and what we reject. What do we spend our time worshiping? Phone Money, material goods? What barriers do we draw between ourselves and the sacred? Perhaps there is room on our altar for something new. What can we offer to the heavens? Heavens, though. Indeed, the temple travels with us.
Speaker 1:This part is interwoven, uh, with a pilgrim, so essentially it's part of a spiritual journey. Um, the ancient yogis saw the body as the temple right, so we were never separated from it. And this makes me think of the kids and that if we were teaching them how to express our own divinity and understand overstand that our body is a temple right, there would be a lot less of this. So there is a homework for this card, and it is. It's almost like a little homeschool game. It says build a shrine with only found materials, only found materials. So this week, I urge you all to find things from the earth that you can add to your own personal shrine. But, moreover, the temple for me signifies exactly what Anokhi said, and that's bringing it home. It starts at home. We have to love these kids, man. We have to love our kids, friends. We have to love our students. We've got to show these kids love, man.
Speaker 2:It's so important well, I love you guys, I love you guys too, the best sunday ever thank you, I'm gonna keep baking that bread and we'll. We'll plan for um, don't stop trying being together, getting together sometime this fall I'm gonna randomly stop and eat your bread one day yes, that would be lovely.
Speaker 3:My bandmate, my band, my bandmate is in murrayville okay, a little bit north, a little bit further than me yeah, yeah, so I gotta pass you twice well, give me a heads up.
Speaker 2:Give me a text you better text. Yeah, have a beautiful day. You guys Love you. Have a beautiful day. Have a beautiful day, love you. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.